Odisha State Forest Department

Forest Offences

The different programmes/ activities undertaken by the Forest Department during the last 5 years for protection of forest form illicit felling/ smuggling by forest mafias are as follows:

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, 163 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 2021-22 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 2021-22 for movement of Field staff and Fire Fighting Protection Squads for forest fire prevention and control activities.
During the year 2021-22 under this State CAMPA APO, 19500 Km of forest Fire Line have been maintained for prevention of forest fire in different Forest Divisions of State.
Further, 32 Forest Protection Squads have been constituted under this State CAMPA APO 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 2021-22, under Forest Fire Prevention and Management - Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 6799 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 numbers 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:

Year	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	55412	50740	6185	558

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 2021-22, an amount of Rs.12, 93,068/- has been provided to different Divisional Forest Officers towards reward amount to the informers.