Forest officials’ expertise to be considered before posting

20-01-2010
Forest officials' expertise to be considered before posting
Times of India By Himanshu Kaushik
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The lion king will have better handlers henceforth. The Union ministry, in a recent decision, has said that only experienced personnel of the Indian Forest Services (IFS) will get critical posting like conservation of Asiatic lions in Gir.

This decision was taken at a recent seminar held in Dehradun. In all, there were 115 IFS officers from across India who had done PhD in their field of interest while serving in the forests. These officials will now be posted in that field. Gujarat has some 82 IFS officials, of which at least 10 IFS officers have done their PHD on various aspects related to wildlife and forest department. Besides, there are three to four others who have achieved expertise on lions and other wildlife in state.

Central government is planning to prepare an action plan for the department. This is aimed at changing the work pattern of forest department. Union forest minister Jairam Ramesh had invited only those officers who had acquired their PhD while serving in the forest areas. They were asked to promote scientific research among the IFS cadre.

He also asked senior officials to promote junior IFS officers to select areas of their interest for PhD. Senior officer who attended the seminar said, "If a forest officer is interested in wildlife, he should be given work in that field. This will not only help the state but other research institutes in India and abroad."

According to Ramesh's action plan, setting up of germplasm bank will be mandatory in every state and each germplasm bank will be linked with the Agriculture University and Regional Research Institutes. The officer said that apart from wildlife, he also wants the same trend to be followed in environment department.