There’s no doubt about it: 2023 will go down as India’s year for the IOC. The Olympic body will be holding its 141st Session in Mumbai next week (15 to 17 October). Alongside the event, it will be staging an ambitious cultural event, with a film festival dedicated to the Olympic movement. Finally, its network of Olympic forests is adding a new ecological restoration project. It is located in the Indian state of Odisha, in the east of the country. It is called the “Odisha Ridley Forest“. Led by the Odisha Forest Department, the Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust and The Habitats Trust, under the impetus of former Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra, Olympic champion in Beijing in 2008 and member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, the initiative aims to plant one million trees over an area of 1,500 hectares. The project should contribute to the ecological restoration of several types of forest, in particular grasslands and wetlands, and protect the region’s plant and animal species. Launched in September 2022, the network of Olympic forests already includes five initiatives in Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
