Phulbani Division was created during the year 1945. The division extends to the whole of Phulbani Sub-Division and G Udayagiri Tahsil of Balliguda Sub-division in Kandhamal District. It covers 7 C.D. Blocks, namely Phulbani, Khajuripada, Phiringia, G Udayagiri, Tikabali, Chakapad and Raikia. The division has four territorial ranges, 21 section and 65 beats. The Range Offices are located at the following places:

The division has 8 forest check gates located at Kalinga, Bisipada, Khajuripada, Ranipathar, Tudipaju, Baraba, Dimiripalli and Nediguda. There are forest Rest Houses at Phulbani, G Udayagiri and Rest Sheds at Phiringia and Karada. There are 28 forest roads over a length of 240.038 KM.

The forests of the division come under category I) 3C North Indian Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests, ii) 5B North Indian Tropical Deciduous forests as per Champion and Seth Classification. There are 59 RF Blocks, which are managed as per the sanctioned working plan prepared for the division by Sri Satyanarayan Bohidar, IFS for the period from 1990-91 to 2000-01. There are 37 demarcated protected forest blocks, which are managed as per the prescriptions of the working scheme prepared by Sri Sankarshan Behera, OFS-II, valid for the period from 1993-94 to 2002-03.

The forest area of the division as computed by the District Level Committee during October, 97 is as under:

The total geographical area of the division is 331261.00 ha. The forest- land thus covers nearly 81% of the total geographical area of the division.

There are about 473 VSSs functioning in the division who have protected about 29504 ha of forests. Due to people’s involvement in the protection of forests, podhu activities have been curbed down to a quite an extent and regenerated, established crop is coming in many villages.

Wild life like elephant, leopard, tiger, bear, boar, deer, etc are available in the forests of this division. During the last wild life (Tiger Census) held between 9.5.98 to 15.5.98, the following animals have been enumerated.

1. TIMBER

Govt. in their FF and AH Department in their letter no23614/FFAH dated 13.10.88 have imposed complete ban on felling of trees in Phulbani Division. Hence working of coupes under Improvement Working Circle has been stopped. The OFDC Ltd. has been directed vide letter no 747/F&E dated 12.1.98 of Forests and Environment Department to carry out all salvaging operations of wood from wind fallen trees and trees uprooted or fallen on the forest floor due to natural causes like cyclones , etc. The out turn of timber and firewood during the last five years is furnished as under:

II Bamboo

There are 23 nos of bamboo coupes in this division. The coupes are worked out by the OFDC Ltd, through their raw material procurer, M/S JK Corp Ltd, Rayagada. These are worked as per the prescriptions laid out in the Working Plan. The annual production of bamboo of the last five years is furnished as under:

There are four bamboo depots in the division located at Sudrukumpa, Dubagarh, Sagadasahi and Luisingi.

The steady decline in the production of bamboos has been due to over exploitation of bamboos from the lower reaches and absence of adequate maintenance operations in the bamboo coupes.

COLLECTION OF MINOR FOREST PRODUCE

The AMCS Ltd., Tikabali had been sanctioned lease of only Siali leaves and hill brooms, which have been leased up to 1999-2000.

The lease of lodha-medha bark has been settled in favour of Sri Govind Kumar Agarwal for the current year, 1999-2000.

The lease of the remaining items have not yet been settled. Government has, however, fixed up the procurement price of the leased items for the current year for the Division.

SAL SEED

The collection of sal seed and royalty assessed and realised during the last five years is given in the table below:

PLANTATION

No regular block plantations have been taken up in this division. Economic RDF plantations have been taken up during the previous five years as under:

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

The work under integrated micro plan at Sudreju, Adimunda and Krandimaska has been executed.

The food grains received, quantity consumed under welfare funds and man days generated are furnished below in the following table:

OFFENCE

There is no sawmill in this division. There is no instance of organised timber smuggling of timber using vehicles. However, problems of timber smuggling is faced in the border forests of Karada and G Udayagiri Range which borders to Ganjam district and Ranipathar Kutibari areas of Phulbani Range which borders Boudh district. The number of cases booked during the last five years is furnished in the following table:

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE

The revenue and expenditure of the division for the last five years is furnished as under:

Note: The revenue figure excludes the royalty for bamboo, sal seeds and MFP items which are paid centrally.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:

The staff position of the division is as under:

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Large extent of forest is damaged due to collection of sal twigs and leaves used for turmeric cultivation over whole of the division.
2. The tribal people take up podhu cultivation traditionally in Reserve Forest of this division. Substantial forest area in Phiringia and G Udayagiri Range are affected by podhu cultivation each year. Podhu cultivation is mainly taken up in revenue and reserve forests. The revenue forest extends over 1,11,936.97 ha in the division and the offence is difficult to be controlled under the provisions of the existing forest act. However, efforts have been made by the Forest Department to distribute pamphlets to educate all the panchayats to desist from podhu cultivation.

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