BHUBANESWAR: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recommended a slew of measures including quarterly inspection of sites to improve monitoring and evaluation of plantation activities to prevent wastage of resources. The move assumes significance as the government has set a target to plant a whopping 9.78 crore saplings in 2022-23. In its recent report, the CAG pointed out gross irregularities in the State government’s plantation programme.
According to forest officials, around 4.88 crore seedlings will be planted by the Forest and Environment department in 1.16 hectare (ha) of land under different schemes and programmes. Another 4.90 crore saplings will be distributed among beneficiaries for plantation outside forest areas.
The CAG recommended the department to carry out quarterly inspections of plantations by range officers and supervision by divisional forest officers (DFOs) for proper maintenance of the plants and saplings. It is also advised to maintain a regular database on plantation programmes which is crucial for planning long-term plantation activities and their concurrent monitoring. The department was asked to maintain a database of GPS-tagged images of each plantation site for better management of forest resources.
The CAG said basic information relating to plantation activities, plantation index number, the extent of available degraded forest and vacant revenue land were not maintained properly. No such information could be made available to audit by the PCCF and some DFOs. It also pointed out that the e-Green Watch developed as an integrated online system to present the data in real-time for monitoring of forestry activity was also not maintained properly
The audit observed that the data were not in real-time on forest activity. Out of 503 compensatory afforestation (CA) plantations, data of only 288 sites, around 57 per cent, were uploaded with polygons. Data of the balance 215 sites were still pending for uploading since 2010. The government also accepted this in October last year, the CAG added.