Chandli Dungri

In forest department records this hill is shown to be 7kms long from Hirkud Dam till NH 6. Before Dam construction, this was a dense forest with perennial springs, wild animals, sandal wood trees and a diversity of plants and animals, which can be found in old records.

Within 2 decades urbanization in this area destroyed everything. Now fire clay mining, regular bio-mass removal and summer fire by tendu-leaf (used for indigenous cigarettes) traders have degraded the hill fl0or, causing massive soil erosion and land degradation mostly due to lack of local conservation initiatives. The forest department and Sambalpur University elites appears to be unconcerned.