Workshop on forest officers concludes

Hyderabad: On the second day of the Workshop of Forest officers on Saturday, good practices initiated at field level were shared.

Out of many new and innovative ways of work started by field officers, a total of nine presentations were shortlisted for sharing. They were: Comprehensive status of forests and forest lands in Nizamabad, Forest land protection & accountability in Mulugu, Forest administration through use of Google Mobile app in Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Use of camera trap for wildlife management in Jannaram, Use of M-Stripes application for patrolling & wildlife management in Jannaram, Forest protection -maximum number of court cases and remanding and Development of Grasslands in Mulugu, Impact of ANR treatment practices in Paloncha, Raising of successful plantations in CA-NFL lands in Khammam and Barren Hill afforestation in Warangal (Urban) district.

The PCCF (HoFF) appreciated the initiatives taken by the field officers and called upon other officers also to take up similar initiatives.

In the Special session, invited Experts shared their experiences with the forest officers. First, P.S.Rao, former expert member of National Green Tribunal made a presentation on how forest officers have to prepare for cases being heard by the NGT. He called upon the officers to develop some working knowledge of Forest Laws and prepare their case with all records and evidence. He mentioned that if documentation is good, NGT always gave judgments in favour of the environment.

P.K. Jha, former PCCF shared his experience on the welfare of forest officers in general and about the need to plan for financial security right from the early days of the career. Lack of knowledge about financial instruments resulted in many retired officers losing their hard-earned money. The PCCF (HoFF) opined that such knowledge could be imparted to all employees as part of their training.

Mridula and her colleagues from Wildlife Conservation Society, Bangalore shared a web-based application for generating crime reports related to wildlife crimes. Senior officers and field officers made some suggestions and it was decided to try this application in some sample cases before standardizing it for wider use.

Lavanya, IFS Probationer did exemplary work in Mulugu district involving Misuse of wood by carpenters, the encroachment of forest lands by Guttikoyas and hard work for booking the maximum number of court cases and also the development of grasslands. She called for up dation of knowledge in wildlife areas and other areas for overall integrated management of forests. More training should be given on this account. In spite of threats from many sources and advice from Police, she bravely carried out the above activities.

The Workshop came to a close with a vote of thanks by the APCCF (Admn.) Sargam Srinivas.