BALANGIR: In the last 10 years, a staggering 74 lakh trees have been planted in Balangir district, according to a reply by the Forest department to an RTI query.
If true, the number of trees planted by the department is five times the total population of the district, said Hemanta Panda, the RTI activist who had filed the application.
As per information provided by the Forest department, 74,46,708 trees have been planted in the district in the last decade. Simply put, Panda said, for every person in Balangir, there are five trees. “If the information is genuine, trees should be visible everywhere but nowhere in the district such a massive number of trees is visible on the ground,” he told a recent press conference.
Providing more data, he said, in the last decade, the Central government sanctioned Rs 197.11 crore to 11 range offices of the district under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund. As per the figure provided by the department, they have utilised Rs 190.51 crore for planting trees which translates to a spending of Rs 250 per tree, he said. Due to shortage of manpower and workload, the department was unable to utilise Rs 7 crore and it was returned.
The RTI activist noted that in Harishankar range alone, the Forest department has claimed to have planted 50,000 trees every year for the last 10 years but on ground, it gives a contrasting picture as the forest coverage seems to be decreasing.
In the last 10 years, the Forest department has planted trees on 27,993 hectare of land and if that is correct, Balangir should have been counted as a green district but it was not the case. “Everywhere you see, from Balangir to Bargarh, or Balangir to Sonepur, only barren land can be found,” he added.
The RTI activist asked if so much has been spent, why the vacant land near Gandhamardhan hills is being given for afforestation by private companies. He demanded a probe into the CAMPA fund utilisation.
A few months back, deputy chief minister KV Singh Deo had made a spot visit to the place where Forest department claimed to have carried out plantation and found to his surprise no trace of plantation. Subsequently, two lower-level staff were suspended.