Bhubaneswar, May 13 -- Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday asked the State Forest department officials to prepare an integrated plan to curb cases of forest fires. Here's why!

According to Forest Survey of India report by the Ministry of Environment, Odisha reported 51,968 forest fires between November 2020 and June 2021, which was the highest in the country during the period.forest fire

After Odisha, the states that posted maximum forest fires were Madhya Pradesh (47,795) & Chhattisgarh (38,106). Amongst districts, maximum number of forest fires was observed in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra (10,577) and Odisha's Kandhamal (6156).

As per the long-term trend analysis performed by the FSI, nearly 10.66% area of Forest cover in I...