Bhubaneswar, Feb 11 (IANS): The Odisha government on Tuesday approved its annual action plan entailing an expenditure of Rs 803.65 crore under CAMPA for the 2020-21 fiscal to increase the green cover in the coastal state.

The action plan was approved by the state-level steering committee on Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy here.

The government decided to undertake various activities under the action plan, including block plantation, assisted natural regeneration, bald-hill plantation, maintenance of previous year's plantation, fodder and fruit-bearing plantation, bamboo culture and wildlife management.

A target has been set to take up plantation in 1,500 hectares, with 1,600 saplings per hectare during 2020-21 and to grow 5,71,48,000 seedlings during the period, said an official.

The issue of forest fire protection figured in the meeting.

Rs 41.13 crore was approved for maintenance of the fire protection line, operation of 216 fire protection squads and support to the Vana Surakhya Samiti (VSS) for fire protection work, the official said.

"As per India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2019, the forest area in Odisha has increased by 274 sq km from 2017 to 2019. Besides, tree cover has also increased by 655 sq km," informed Uma Nanduri, chief executive officer of CAMPA.

Nanduri said a total of 55,534.40 hectares of forest area has been diverted for different purposes.

Against this, 72,606.57 hectares have been marked for compensatory afforestation.