PIB News Update: With a view to achieving outcomes related to the mandates of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in an improved, timely and effective manner, and for this purpose to further enhance its outreach to stakeholders, undertake coordinated action and optimize the utilization of available resources, MoEFCC has approved establishment of 19 Integrated Regional Offices (IROs) of the MoEF&CC. These IROs will start functioning from October 1st, 2020.
The IROs will be established though redeployment of human and other resources available with 10 Regional Offices of ROHQ Division, 4 Regional Offices of Forest Survey of India (FSI), 3 Regional Centre of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 4 Regional Offices of Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and 5 Regional Offices & 3 Sub-regional Offices of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in an integrated manner, and their further strengthening. Thus, each IRO shall have representation from existing Regional Office/Regional Centre of MoEF&CC, FSI, NTCA, CZA and WCCB as available to them from time to time.
The headquarters and jurisdictions of the 19 IROs will be as under:
| Sl. No. | Headquarter of IRO | States and UTs under jurisdiction |
| (i) | Shillong | Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura |
| (ii) | Ranchi | Jharkhand, Bihar |
| (iii) | Bhubaneswar | Odisha |
| (iv) | Bengaluru | Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep |
| (v) | Chennai | Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, A&N Islands |
| (vi) | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh |
| (vii) | Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh |
| (viii) | Nagpur | Maharashtra |
| (ix) | Chandigarh | Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab |
| (x) | Dehradun | Uttarakhand |
| (xi) | Jaipur | Rajasthan, Delhi |
| (xii) | Gandhi Nagar | Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli |
| (xiii) | Vijayawada | Andhra Pradesh |
| (xiv) | Raipur | Chhattisgarh |
| (xv) | Hyderabad | Telangana |
| (xvi) | Shimla | Himachal Pradesh |
| (xvii) | Kolkata | West Bengal, Sikkim |
| (xviii) | Guwahati | Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh |
| (xix) | Jammu | Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir |
The head of each of the IRO will be called “Regional Officer” of MoEF&CC. Each of the above 19 Integrated Regional Offices (IROs) shall work as an integrated regional unit of the MoEF&CC in achieving the outcomes related to the mandate of theMinistry.