Rajamahendravaram: Make Forest Academy financially self-supporting

Rajamahendravaram(East Godavari District): As part of improving the training standards of Andhra Pradesh State Forest Academy (APSFA), its Director PAV Udaya Bhaskar explained the changes being made in the syllabus to suit the daily duties of the forest field force.

Various training programmes related to forestry and procedures for conducting special training have been disclosed at a meeting of APSFA Board of Control held at the academy auditorium here on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by Director Udaya Bhaskar and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Forces (HoFF) Y Madhusudan Reddy was chief guest. A discussion was held on the Academy's financial resources for training needs.

PCCF Madhusudan Reddy said that the conditions of duty of forest employees should be kept in mind during training. For Rayalaseema forest employees, management of drylands and wildlife conservation are the main areas, while nurseries and conservation of wetlands are the main areas in coastal districts, hence there should be different training modules to address them, he suggested.

He wants to explore ways to make Forest Academy financially self-supporting. "There is a need to give priority to training resources of forest personnel. As part of that, steps will be taken to develop the State Forest Academy, which is a State-level institution in all ways," he added.

In the subsequent meeting of the Board of Governors (BOG) of the Forest Society, various plans would be discussed to make the society more beneficial. The Forest Society is organised under the authority of the Forest Department. PCCF, President and Director of the Forest Academy is acting as the convener. Plans were discussed to strengthen the society by providing assistance in terms of conservation and marketing to timber tree farmers under the auspices of the society, participation in eco-tourism development projects, and conducting mass training programmes.

EFS&T Special Secretary Dr PV

Chalapathi Rao, PCCF (Budget)

RK Suman and others participated in the meeting.