There are two schools of thoughts about exactly how the forest protection began in Budhikhamari. According to Mahapatra (1999) the initiative in the village started on its own in 1983 when, after years of drought, a herbal medicine practitioner proclaimed at a village gathering that the village would not survive if the forest was not regenerated. On the other hand Poffenbueger (2000) states that the efforts for conservation date back to 1983 when the then Range Officer Mr. K.C. Mishra encouraged and supported the involvement of the local villagers in the forest protection