Nearly 1/3 of the frontline forest personnel posts are lying vacant in the State. In Kerala, there are 936 posts to be filled up against the sanctioned strength of 3,594 (http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/13/stories/2010051361830400.htm).
Assistant Conservator of Forests and those below (like RFOs, foresters etc) in the hierarchy are frontline staff. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Environment and Forest, has urged Chief Minister “to ensure that the vacant posts of frontline staff are filled immediately.”
There is a catch-22 situation here.
I have been told by many senior officers that forest guards are quitting the Kerala Forest department in large numbers. The reason-frustration-many ended up in this job because they could not find another suitable one. So once they get one, they quit. Moreover, the service conditions are not rosy (this category are the easy scapegoats in the official machinations), another reason for quitting at the first available opportunity. After all, jobs should not become a botheration.
I suggest that the govt should start a vocational course in forestry in selected Vocational Higher Secondary schools in Kerala. Foresters and guards should be selected from those who pass VHS course in Forestry. Afterall, the union Minister has observed that officials at grassroots levels need to be recruited for “protecting the flora and fauna, increasing the forest cover, taking on wildlife crime and using forests to mitigate the impact of climate change.”
What on Earth is the logic in recruiting mathematicians, physicsts and chemists as frontline forest personnel?
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