Suresh Gairola has been appointed as the Director-General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). He relinquished the post of Additional Director General (Wildlife) at MoEFCC on Monday and assumed the charge of Director-General, ICFRE on Tuesday in Dehradun.
According to officials, Gairola graduated from DBS College Dehradun during 1978 – 1980, did his post graduation in forestry and allied subjects from IGNFA Dehradun during 1982-1984, followed by post graduate diploma in Environmental law from National law School of India University from 2011– 2012 and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Forest Management was awarded to him by the Forest Research Institute (Deemed) University, Dehradun. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore from where he completed post graduate programme in public policy and management.
Gairola is a forestry professional with 35-year experience and expertise in forest conservation and management, wildlife management, public policy, environmental law, research and administration. Earlier, he has worked extensively in forest areas of Maharashtra, at policy level with Government of Maharashtra and as a Group Coordinator Research/ Director at Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bengaluru. His job as a Nodal Officer involved striking a delicate balance between development and forest conservation and dealing with policies and procedures associated with diversion of forest lands for developmental projects in the state of Maharashtra. He also had a feel of the corporate world while working as Managing Director of Government owned Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra. He was a member of Board of Governors of the ICFRE and a member of Board of Directors of Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra.
Gairola has also published more than 30 research publications in various journals of national and international standing. He has been awarded Brandis Prize by Indian Forester for best research paper during 2005.
After assuming the charge of ICFRE DG, Gairola had a detailed discussion with senior officials of ICFRE and FRI regarding the various research and development programmes of ICFRE and its institutes. He expressed a desire for work in close coordination with the MoEFCC so as to further enhance the research and development outcome of ICFRE and its institutes for betterment of forestry sector and general public. He also reviewed the preparations for the Commonwealth Forestry Conference 2017 scheduled to be held from April 3 to 7 and issued necessary directions to make the event a success.