A few decades ago forestry was very different than what it is today. “The role of trees and forests in general that were perceived in the past is not how we understand it today,” said additional director general of forests (Wl) SS Garbyal.
He was speaking at the 2011-13 batch convocation at the Central Academy for State Forest Service (CASFoS). A total of 41 officer trainees sponsored by various State Governments passed out after completing two-year induction training.
The officer trainees comprised two each from Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, four each from Meghalaya and Karnataka, 11 from Madhya Pradesh, five from Maharashtra and 13 from Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing the gathering, Garbyal said, “In the past, we never looked at trees as sequesters of carbon. The focus then was on how to maximise returns from the forests. Today, our concerns are entirely different, which were not conceivable earlier. Today global warming and climate change are the biggest concerns for the world. We have just witnessed in Uttarakhand how devastating it can be if corrective and timely actions are not taken immediately,” he said.
He further said that Today, we do not look for financial and economic returns from forests, but look at the forests as something on which the very existence of the entire humanity is dependent.
The forestry profession is one of the most important professions, in fact many believe it to be as a profession of the future He also noted that the passing out batch comprised a good number of lady officers and appreciated the induction of women in the forest service, which was earlier considered to be the domain of men.
CASFoS principal Ashish Rawat presented the annual report and informed that during the two-year 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, 150 days of study tours were conducted to different forest areas across India. Sunny Verma of Himachal Pradesh won the Ministry of Environment and Forests Gold Medal, Silver Medal for ‘Best All Rounder Officer Trainee and Most Practical Officer’ and Silver Medal for ‘Proficiency in Forest Management and Working Plan’.
Khalid Amin Mehta of Jammu and Kashmir received the Silver Medal for ‘Proficiency in Ecology’, Uday C Dhage of Maharashtra received the RC Kaushik Prize for Proficiency in Soil Conservation and land Management and the CCASFoS Association Prize for Proficiency in Forest Engineering and Survey, While Harishchandra S Waghmode of Maharashtra received P Srinivas Prize in Forest Protection and Tribal Welfare.