41 Honorary Wildlife Wardens appointed in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Thursday appointed 41 Honorary Wildlife Wardens (HWWs) across all the districts as per the provision of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. They have been appointed for a period of two years till June 2023.  

Wildlife conservationist Aditya Chandra Panda along with Pradeep Kumar Sahoo have been appointed as the HWWs for Angul district. Snake Helpline general secretary Subhendu Mallik is the new HWW for Khurda district.

Apart from Mallik, Speak for Animal founder Kusal Biswas and Jyotirmaya Barik will also serve as HWWs of Khurda. Pradipta Kabi, Akshay Kumar Mohanty and Bibekananda Pattnaik have been appointed as the HWWs for Mayurbhanj district, while Sibaram Sahoo and Hrudananda Naik will look into Sambalpur district.

Suresh Chandra Tripathy will be the HWW for Cuttack, while Bijay Kumar Dash and Surya Narayan Lenka would look into Dhenkanal and Kendrapara respectively. The appointments were delayed for around a year as terms of the HWWs appointment in the State had expired in July 2020.