Bhubaneswar: The Reliance Foundation has collaborated with the Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department of the state government as well as local communities to prevent forest fire in Odisha. 

The foundation is closely working with the state government, community cadres, Vana Suraksha Samitis (VSSs) and NGO partners to create awareness and boost capacity building for effectively preventing forest fire in the state.

As part of this initiative, a three-month long awareness campaign was launched on the occasion of World Wildlife Day on March 8. The campaign will run till World Environment Day on June 5.

Reliance Foundation in association with the state government and PRADHAN, an NGO, is engaging community cadres through field level activities and a series of multi-location audio conferences on forest fire mitigation.

The initiative is focussing on vulnerable areas with proper strategy to mitigate the forest fires. As part of this initiative, advisories in vernacular language are being disseminated in the districts of Rayagada, Mayurbhanj, Kandhamal and Kalahandi. 

The awareness campaign covers natural and anthropogenic causes of forest fire, local/global impact of forest fire, role of communities, and synergy between Forest Department, civil society organizations and NGOs in forest fire management. It also disseminates information on the steps introduced by the Forest Department to fight forest fires.

The campaign aims at increasing community preparedness on fire risk and improving response and mitigation measures. Through increased stakeholder collaborations, the initiative is working towards reducing human caused forest fire incidence.

Along with Reliance Foundation resource persons, Dr. Umashankar Nayak, Joint Director, Research, OUAT and Swetaleena Sahu, ACF, Phulbani are extending technical support to this campaign.

As part of the field-level programme, a daylong session was held in Balasore recently. Saralia Eco-Development Committee (EDC) and local youth volunteers attended the session. 

The Saralia local communities are protecting 164 hectares of village forest under Oupada forest Range in Balasore. The causes and impact of forest fires in Odisha were thoroughly discussed at the event. 

The community cadres were explained various steps including forest line, timely removal of dried and dead tree branches and periodic removal of fallen leaves to prevent forest fire. 

Notably, Odisha has approximately 52,156 square kilometres of forest area, which is around 33 per cent of its total geographical area.

As per the government data, as many as 19,892 forest fires have been recorded in Odisha in the current season, between January 1 and April 25.