IFS officer Dr Savita who was handling the charge of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) deputy director general (Education) assumed charge as the first woman director of Forest Research Institute (FRI) on Wednesday. She assumed charge as the FRI director after premature repatriation of Dr PP Bhojvaid.
Dr Savita did her post graduation in Botany and Forestry and in addition also holds Masters Diploma in Public Administration from IIPA and MPhil in Rural Development from Punjab University, Chandigarh. She has also done MBA from University of Western Sydney, Australia. later, she completed PhD on governance issues in forest management from FRI Deemed University, Dehradun.
Besides working in various capacities in the state of Himachal Pradesh, she worked as deputy secretary in National Women Commission, Ministry of HRD, director in Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. She also did a short stint as Professor (Academics) in Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy and remained principal of Central Academy for State Forest Services, Dehradun for five years. Before joining ICFRE as DDG (Education), she worked as additional PCCF (HRD) in Himachal Pradesh for more than two years.
Though Dr Savita has an extensive experience in planning, formulation and execution of forest education and training programmes as professor (Academics), she has special interest in climate change and global warming including the aspects of carbon mitigation and trading of carbon credits. She has also gained expertise in joint forest management practices including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) which is being successfully practiced in Himachal Pradesh.