Bhubaneswar: Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray Wednesday inaugurated the ‘Prakruti Bhawan’- the wildlife headquarters- at Sahid Nagar here and also flagged off a rescue van to shift the wild animals from protected areas to the zoo and vice-versa.
Built at an estimated expenditure of Rs 8.61 crore, the building has some unique features including its own sewerage treatment plant (STP) with waste digester, rooftop rainwater harvesting plant, CCTVs, bio-metric and Wi-Fi service.
The building facing the NH-16 has important features like an Interpretation Centre with different theme halls, eco-tourism cell with city booking centre on the ground floor. The 49-seater conference hall is located on the 15th floor and a 10-seater mini-conference hall with video-conferencing facility on the second floor. In addition to above, the State Wildlife Crime cell with 24X7 helpline facility functions under a deputy conservator of forest on the 3rd floor with an extra provision future expansion of wildlife forensic laboratory with an area of 370 sqft.
The animal rescue van has been procured from Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh at Rs 25 lakh. The department will procure another van from Kanha national park soon.
The department will also procure specialised squad vehicle Airawat from West Bengal Forest department to deal with frequent elephant-human conflict. Airawat is a four-wheeler equipped with modern gadgets to manage the man-animal conflicts.
The department will procure five such vehicles costing Rs 25 lakh each.