Forest Protection

Initiatives taken for protection of forest in the State

The detail picture of Forest Protection Units in the State is reflected below.

Number of Units	Number of Forest Divisions	Number of Wildlife Divisions	Total
Number of Division	37	14	51
Number of Ranges	219	69	288
Number of Sections	831	237	1068
Number of Beats	3034	693	3727

Each Division, Range, Section and Beat is manned by Divisional Forest Officer, Forest Ranger, Forester and Forest Guard respectively.
There are two APR units deployed in Khordha Forest Division to assist forest staff in protection activities.
In total, 199 Forest Check Gates have been set up for checking of vehicles and prevention of smuggling of forest produce on transit.
213 Fire Protection Squads have been constituted under State CAMPA APO 2020-21 involving 2130 number of local youths @1 squad per Range (each squad of 10 persons) in 37 Territorial Divisions of the State for forest fire prevention and control activities.
Each Forest Range has been provided one hired vehicle under State CAMPA APO 2020-21 for movement of Field staff and Fire Fighting Protection Squads for forest fire prevention and control activities.
During the year 2020-21 under State CAMPA APO 2020-21, 19500 Km of forest Fire Line have been maintained for prevention of forest fire in different Forest Divisions of State.
32 Forest Protection Squads have been constituted under State CAMPA Scheme involving 320 numbers of local youths respectively for forest protection activities in different Territorial Divisions of the State.
37 Fire Protection Squads have been constituted under Centrally Sponsored Scheme involving 370 numbers of local youths respectively for forest fire protection activities in 37 Forest Divisions of the State.
During the year 2020-21, under Forest Fire Prevention and Management - Centrally Sponsored Scheme 4727 Km of forest Fire Line have been created for prevention of forest fire in different Forest Divisions of the State.
590 numbers of VHF stations and 880 number of Walkie-Talkies are in operation in the State for strengthening communication network to be used for monitoring protection activities.
The details of year wise offence cases detected with timber and vehicles seized for the last 5 years are given below (upto December 2020):

Year	Offence Cases Detected (In No.)	Offenders Involved (In No.)	Timber Seized Quantity (In Cum.)	Vehicles Seized (In No.)
2016-17	65228	51180	1915	1280
2017-18	66493	60353	7952	530
2018-19	63105	47130	5397	411
2019-20	59460	41310	3673	358
2020-21	37271	30992	4887	704

The Orissa Forest Act, 1972 has been amended as "The Orissa Forest (Amendment) Act, 2010", wherein the compounding fee has been enhanced from Rs.100/- to Rs.5,000/-..
25 Forest Guards and 4 Foresters have been recruited to assist Odisha Special Striking Force engaged for protection of Berbera and Dhuanali forests.

Rewards to Informers and Forest Officials

Rewards are being given to informers, staff, public etc in cash as per "Reward for Detection of Forest Offence Rules, 2004" to encourage them to cooperate in forest protection activities. During 2020-21 an amount of Rs.33, 31,898/- has been provided to different Divisional Forest Officers towards reward amount to the informers.