Sundargarh: To enhance the forest ecosystem along with livelihood of local people by improving sustainable management and biodiversity conservation and community development, the Odisha Forest Sector Development Project (PhaseII) is being implemented in 156 Van Surakhya Samities (VSS) in five forest management units (FMU) in Sundargarh district. The places where the projects are being implemented are Ujalpur, Lephripara, Hemgir, Sundargarh and Bargaon. The project is all set and running successfully with regeneration of degraded forest resources through afforestation, livelihood development through creation of employment generation programmes under the direct supervision of DFO, Sundargarh, Pradeep Mirase and ACF Mohan Hembram. This project is aimed at the socio-economic development of the poorest of the poor (PoP) and forest dependant families by involving self-help groups (SHGs). Business development plans are being developed by the SHGs for employment generation with support from P-NGO (SEWAK) staffs and FMU officials.
To facilitate the plans, an amount of Rs1.73 crore as loan has been distributed to 339 SHGs, 33 CIGs and 39 PoP families at minimum rate of interest. In this context, a capacity-building training programme on vegetable cultivation, vermin compost, and poultry farming was held successfully at the Rauldega section office premises of Sundargarh FMU.
A total of 2,600 members belonging to 86 VSS of the five FMUs participated in the programme. The key facilitators of these training programmes were Manoj Kumar Jena, senior scientist, KVK, Sundargarh; Uttam Kumar Behera, VAS-Balisankara; Ranjita Rashmi Pradhan, VAS-Sundargarh; Deepak Kumar Bindhani, VASBargaon; Prafulla Kumar Naik, block veterinary officer and retired VAS Tapovan Patel. Under the leadership of Sundargarh divisional management unit, SMS Gopal Chandra Shukla and Sukant Kumar Pani, DMU Accountant Suryakant Senapati, P-NGO SEWAK staff and FMU coordinators organised the entire programme.
The participants expressed their satisfaction that the training will support them to a great extent towards better management of the income-generation activities as well as develop a revolving fund for themselves.