Bhubaneswar, August 22, 2016: As part of the process of preparing the Odisha State Comprehensive Wildlife Management Plan (OSCOW-MAP), an inter-sectoral consultative meeting was held on August 20 between the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) project team and relevant departments of the Government of Odisha.

During the OSCOW-MAP inception workshop held on March 10, 2016, a need was felt to receive insights into the present as well as future policies, strategies and plans of important government departments, including those directly dealing with different land uses in and around protected areas (PAs), other wildlife habitats, forested areas, wetlands, and even non-forest areas impacting wildlife. Such insights, it was believed, would be useful in drafting implementable and practical prescriptions in the OSCOW-MAP as well as Divisional Wildlife Management Plans (DIW-MAPs).

It was against this backdrop that the recent inter-sectoral meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Mr Aditya Prasad Padhi, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha. Government departments that participated in the meeting included Forest and Environment, Rural Development, Tourism, Works, CESU, Steel and Mines, Railways, Energy, Finance, Water Resources, NHAI, Housing and Urban Development, South CO Utility and NESCO Utility.

The Chief Secretary asserted that Odisha being a poor state, it was important that a balance be struck between its developmental and nature conservation needs. The Chief Wildlife Warden of Odisha echoed this sentiment, emphasising that the Comprehensive Wildlife Management Plan had to be practical and implementable, and must take due note of the developmental imperatives of the state. Dr MK Ranjitsinh, WTI’s Chairman Emeritus, underscored Odisha’s historical traditional of wildlife conservation and said that the state, being extremely rich in wildlife resources, should make every effort to protect and conserve these. He requested that the state government nominate nodal points in all departments to provide information about their developmental plans.

Dr Jagdish Kishwan, the Principal Investigator of the project, made a presentation on the project outline and urged the allied government departments to share their present and long-term plans and polices with the WTI project team so that the OSCOW-MAP and DIW-MAPs could incorporate prescriptions that could make conservation and development go hand in hand. Dr Kishwan also urged the allied departments to demonstrate a willingness to adjust their developmental objectives keeping the imperatives of wildlife conservation in mind.

The representatives of participating departments made several practical suggestions that will enable the OSCOW-MAP and DIW-MAPs to provide conservation prescriptions that are not inimical to the developmental plans of their respective departments.