Bhubaneswar, Nov 21: As many as 5,058 posts of the total 12,621 sanctioned posts under different categories in the Forest Department in Odisha, which is 40.07 per cent posts of the Department, have been lying vacant, informed State's Minister of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Pradip Kumar Amat on Tuesday.

The data produced by Minister Amat while answering to a question asked by BJD MLA Prasanta Behera revealed that as many as 210 posts are lying vacant out of the sanctioned 492 grade-A posts in the State Forest Department.

Similarly, 410 posts in grade-B, 4001 in grade-C and 437 in grade-D are lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 759, 10,378, and 992 respectively in the respective grades.

As many as 24 Assistant Conservators of Forest are receiving training at the Central Academy for State Forest Service (CASFOS), Dehradun who will join the service soon after completion of the training period.

The Minister said the government has taken steps to fill up another 45 Assistant Conservator of Forest posts soon. Similarly, 29 Forest Rangers are getting training at the Odisha Forest Rangers' College, Angul while steps have been taken for the appointment of 131 new Forest Rangers.

As many as 806 Forest Guards have been deployed in different forest divisions recently and the remaining 1,677 forest guard vacancies are in the process of being filled.

The process has also been started to fill up 317 Junior Assistant posts in different districts, the Minister added.