Rajamahendravaram: Special training to FROs to understand local conditions says PCCF Naik

Rajamahendravaram (East Godavari district) : Forest Range Officers (FROs), who play vital role as a bridge between higher officials and field staff in the forest department, can perform better by understanding duties, stated Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) (IT & Research) AK Naik.

He inaugurated 7-day orientation training programme for direct recruitment of forest range officers at AP State Forest Academy in Rajamahendravaram on Monday. As many as 19 range officers from Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Guntur, Kurnool and Rajahmundry circles across the State attended this training.

Addressing the participants, Naik said though Range Officers have been trained at national/State level, this special training will help them to understand local conditions of our State. Proper identification of forest area and proper use of information technology in determining the boundaries will facilitate the performance of the duty, he said.

For the first time, a training programme for range officers has been organised under the leadership of Andhra Pradesh Forest Academy. He appreciated Academy Director PAV Udaya Bhaskar and the faculty team for taking innovative initiatives to raise the standards of the Academy.

Academy Director PAV Udaya Bhaskar, who presided over the meeting, said that proper training for employees is necessary at every stage. Since proper mapping is crucial for forest conservation, special emphasis has been given to the subject of forest survey in this training. He informed that special classes will be conducted on the use of various devices and experimental surveys for proper use of information technology. Out of the 19 range officers undergoing training, 13 are engineering graduates and the remaining are youths. He said that this is a good sign for future success in terms of forest survey and protection in the forest department.

Rajahmundry Forest Circle Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) S Saravanan suggested the range officers to take advantage of this orientation training.

Academy Deputy Director Dr NV Sivaramaprasad, Course Director V Srihari Gopal, Academy faculty members AV Ramanamurthy, T Chakrapani, T Srinivasa Rao, P Uday Sankar, State Silviculturist Sheikh Salam, District Forest Officer Nagaraju, Academy Administrative Officer Damodar and others were present.