Odisha: Senior forest officer to get Asia Environmental Enforcement Awards from UN

Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: Senior OFS officer Sasmita Lenka has been nominated for the Asia Environmental Enforcement Awards given by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Lenka will get the award under ‘Impact and gender leadership’ category during her tenure as Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Athagarh in Cuttack district. The award ceremony will be held virtually on February 17.She is currently posted as the Deputy Conservator of Forest in the office of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest. The Asia Environmental Enforcement Awards publicly recognize and celebrate excellence in enforcement by government officials and institutions or teams combating transboundary environmental crime. The award will be presented to the senior forest official for her contribution towards conservation of pangolin. Between August 2019 and April 2020, Lenka led a team that detained around 28 persons and seized three live Indian pangolins, one dead pangolin and 5 kgs of pangolin scales. In one case in December 2019, she and her team busted an international pangolin smuggling racket by arresting as many as eight suspects and recovering numerous pangolin scales. I n a general effort to curb smuggling of pangolins in her division, She had announced a cash reward of Rs 10000 for information on pangolin traffickers. She and her team have organized several awareness drives to sensitize the community on trafficking and to request them to provide information to the forest department about smugglers. On 28 April 2020, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden of Odisha had also issued a commendation certificate to Lenka for her leadership and hard work in wildlife crime control.