CUTTACK: The Odisha government has relocated the proposed Central Research Institute of Yoga and Naturopathy following concerns over dense vegetation at the originally selected site in Khurda district.
In an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Khurda collector and district magistrate Amrit Ruturaj informed that the project had been shifted from the 20 acre government land at Binjhagiri under Jatni tehsil to an alternative site at Alkar in the same tehsil.
The affidavit by Rituraj placed before the NGT’s East Zone bench on Tuesday was the state government’s reply to the petition filed by two local residents Hazari Dehuri and Hrudananda Kodamsingh.
In an interim order on March 19, 2025, the Tribunal had stated that all construction work would be subject to the outcome of the petition seeking relocation of the project.The Bench comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert members A Senthil Vel and Ishwar Singh took the collector’s affidavit on record and closed hearing on the petition on Tuesday.
The proposed institute, under the Ministry of Ayush, envisages a 100-bed naturopathy hospital and research facility. Its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video-conferencing on October 29, 2024.
According to the collector’s affidavit, the original land had been identified following a requisition from the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) in December 2011. The government subsequently allotted the land, and a lease deed was registered on July 19, 2014. The council took possession on March 20, 2015.
However, the administration later found that the forest growth on the site could attract restrictions under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, making construction problematic.
The district administration consequently identified 15 acre of government land at Alkar. The site-selection proposal was approved on February 23, 2026, and the state Revenue department sanctioned advance possession on April 4. The land was handed over to the ministry on April 28.
Meanwhile, the original 20-acre plot at Binjhagiri, earlier alienated for the project, has been resumed and restored to its original revenue records, the affidavit stated. Petitioners’ counsel Sankar Prasad Pani said the relocation could save nearly 26,000 trees at the original site.