In the past, the focus was on maximising returns from forests, whereas now with trees being perceived also as sequesters of carbon, the focus is more on global warming and climate change. The Director General (Forests), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Dr SS Garbyal said this at the convocation of the 2012-14 batch at the Central Academy for State Forest Service (CASFoS) here on Sunday.
Garbyal recollected that when he first joined forestry profession 37 years ago, forestry was whole lot different than what it is today. “The role of trees and forests in general that we perceived then is not how we understand it today. We never looked at trees as sequesters of carbon. Concern then was how to maximise the return from the forests. Today our concerns are entirely different, which were not conceivable earlier. Global warming and climate change are the biggest concerns all over the world. We recently witnessed in Uttarakhand how devastating it can be if corrective and timely actions are not taken immediately. Today we do not look for financial and economic returns from the forests. Rather we look at the forests as something on which the very existence of the entire humanity depends.” He also noted that the passing out batch comprised a good number of lady officers and expressed his pleasure on induction of women in the forest service, which was once considered to be the domain of men.
Delivering the annual report, CASFoS principal N Sonzalian informed that during the two years training course, the officer trainees were taught 19 academic subjects apart from the field exercises on working plan, road alignment, forest survey and engineering.
In addition, more than 145 days of study tours were conducted to different forest areas across the nation.The 2012-14 batch that passed out on Sunday consisted of 41 officer trainees sponsored by various State Governments out of which 15 were from Andhra Pradesh, four each from Goa and Himachal Pradesh, 10 from Madhya Pradesh and eight from West Bengal.
Anupam Khan of West Bangal won the MoEFCC gold medal for Topper Officer Trainee of the batch and CASFoS Association prize for Proficiency in Forest Engineering and Survey.
Nand Kumar Parab of Goa won the silver medal for Best All Rounder Officer Trainee and Most Practical officer, Vishal Surve of Goa won the silver medal for Proficiency in Forest Management and Working Plan and P Srinivas prize in Forest Protection and Tribal Welfare, Manish Kumar Yadav of West Bengal won silver medal for Proficiency in Ecology while Shiko Kichouliya of Madhya Pradesh won the RC Kaushik prize for Proficiency in Soil Conservation and land Management.