The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found concentration of plantation activities in easily accessible areas like land along the pathways, leaving the degraded patches in the middle of dense forest unplanted in Odisha — one of reasons cited for missing plantation target in the State.
The CAG came down heavily on the State government indicating that plantation undertaken by in the State did not result in improvement of degraded forest area and increase in forest cover to its full potential. Besides, the apex audit agency pointed out that the State did not have any data base on degraded land.
Odisha’s forest cover in the State is assessed as 51,619 sq. km, which is 33.15% of State’s geographical area as per India State of Forest Report 2019.