Malkangiri: Even as the state government spends lakhs of rupees on afforestation, protection of forest cover and wild animals are in tatters in Malkangiri district, a report said.
According to sources, shortage of manpower has been a bottleneck in protecting the greens. As a result, it becomes difficult to guard nearly 10,000 square kilometres of forest area to catch wood mafias as well as poachers, for one guard deployed for the purpose.
The district has 352.44 square kilometres of reserve forest, 940.61 square kilometres of identified protected forest and 0.30 square kilometres of non-categorised forest, sources said.
Similarly, there are 14.61 square kilometres of otherwise categorised forest, 661.62 square kilometres of protected forest under the possession of revenue department. Nearly 8.35 square kilometres of forest in the district has not been recorded by the forest department.
Apart from the above, Malkangiri district also has a number of hills, mountains and other terrestrial resources. Inadequate staff is said to be a major cause behind the forest depletion here.
Two out of three Assistant Forest Conservator (AFC) posts in this district lie vacant. Likewise, there are five Forest Rangers working in Malkangiri district forest department, against six available posts.
The department has only two assistant officers, even if there are five available posts. However, the minimum number of staff available here are otherwise deployed in less important assignments.
The district has a requirement of over 300 forest guards, keeping in mind its total forest cover. As against this, the state government has created only 130 guard posts for Malkangiri.
Fifty-one posts of forest guards still lie vacant here. Of late, the state government has started a recruitment drive for filling up only 16 vacancies out of which 14 positions are meant for female and two for male candidates. Malkangiri being a Maoist-prone tribal district, its forests need to be guarded with utmost priority, locals said.
Notably, what has also not helped the green cause is the failure of Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) to undertake compensatory afforestation in the district, intelligentsia opined.