Bhubaneswar: Take pro-active actions in safeguarding the environment, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi said while meeting with environmentalists here Sunday. The CM appealed to the people to play active roles in ensuring greener future even as he asked them to carry out plantation activities whenever possible. “People working in different sectors and institutions should come forward and take a collective approach in planting saplings,” he said.
On the occasion, environmentalists discussed with CM a charter of demands on various concerns related to the protection of the environment and ecosystem in the state. The delegation led by Orissa Environmental Society (OES) requested Majhi to initiate steps to declare the Mahendragiri Forest Ecosystem as the second biosphere reserve of the state and to implement and enact the Chilika Act. They further demanded to accelerate the eco-restoration works in the state given the declaration of 2021-2030 as the ‘Ecosystem Restoration Decade’ by the United Nations, to take up extensive afforestation projects and plantation activities and focus on improving the overall environmental quality of the state.