Jumbo corridor plan put in place

  • 19/12/2012

  • New Indian Express (Bhubaneswar)

Minister for Forest and Environment Bijayshree Routray on Tuesday said in the Assembly that Rs 62.1 lakh has been spent on development of 14 elephant corridors during between 2009-10 and 2010-11 from the elephant management plan. In a written reply to a question from Amar Prasad Satpathy (BJD), the Minister said for the first time, a special project of `5 crore has been sanctioned for the development of elephant corridors in 2012-13. The State Government has released the funds in two phases in September and November, he said. The Minister said work on survey, demarcation, corridor consolidation, development and excavation of ponds, construction of watch tower and solar power-run fence for the 14 corridors has started since the last two to three months. He said Rs 77.82 lakh has already been spent by November. Replying to a question from Gobardhan Das (Cong), the Minister said 21 teams have been engaged by Chandaka and Khurda forest divisions to drive away elephants from the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. In a written reply to a question from Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Ind), the Minister said more than 120 elephants have crossed over from Jharkhand to Nilgiri area of the State this year. He said steps have been taken to drive away the elephants from the villages with efforts from the district administration, police, forest department and villagers.