Buguda: Even as the forest department here in Ganjam district prepared 5.40 lakh saplings for plantation in the current year, till date only 84,580 saplings have been used while another 4.58 lakh saplings are rotting. Forest department officials are sitting idle.
According to sources, officials had prepared 1 lakh saplings in 2012-13, 2 lakh saplings in 2013-14, 2.20 lakh in 2014-15 and 3.75 lakh in 2015-16. The saplings were distributed to different organisations and schools free of cost and they were planted by August 31, 2016.
However, the forest department found itself in a spot after over 4 lakh saplings out of 5.40 lakh prepared in the year 2016-17 were dumped at the forest office. While the saplings were distributed free in previous years, officials tried to sell them for Rs 2 each in the current year.
Officials adopted a new scheme ‘Tree Outside Forest Yojana’ and prepared 3 lakh saplings in 13 temporary nurseries. Out of 3 lakh saplings, only 46,862 saplings were used with 45, 977 sold and 885 donated. Now, a total of 2.53 lakh saplings are lying in the forest department.
Similarly, 2 lakh saplings were prepared under ‘Agro Forest Yojana’ in nine nurseries. Out of this, 31,497 saplings were sold while another 1,221 were provided to educational institutions. A total of 34, 718 saplings were used while another 1.65 lakh are lying unused.
Another 40,000 saplings under a different scheme are lying unused. In total, 5.40 lakh saplings were prepared in three schemes while only 97,424 were sold and 1206 provided to educational centres.
While locals wanted to plant saplings, they were reluctant to buy it from the forest department at Rs 2 per plant. Awareness among the masses will help them buy the saplings, Buguda forester Prasant Kumar Sahu said. PNN
