They work as much as any police personnel. More precisely like a police sub inspector. They even wear two stars on their uniforms just like inspectors. The ‘section foresters’ or just ‘foresters’ as they are referred to, have had a raw deal when it comes to pay hike.
The hard fact is, each forester who guards anywhere between 6000-10000 hectares of forest rich in many kinds of resources gets only Rs 6,250 as basic salary (revised from Rs 3,300) as against the work he puts in -- no holidays and barely any leave.
 The fifth pay commission may have brought some good news to many government servants, but not for the forestors whose numbers are close to 2,000 in the State. Hike in the basic component of the pay is much less compared to other departments in their category.
“We are hearing only promises from the authorities for the last 10 years. There was always a huge difference of pay between government employees and forestors belonging to the same category. With fifth pay commission, the gulf has only widened,” says Prashanth Kumar Pai of Foresters Association.  
According to the interim report submitted by the commission, foresters got Rs 3,300 - 6,300 as basic pay while zonal forest officers got Rs 5,575 - 8,400 with a difference of Rs 2,275 between both.
Final report has made the zonal forest officers happy with Rs 10,800 - 20,025 while foresters are forced to be content with Rs 6,250 - 12,000. This is the lowest among ‘C’ grade workers in the government.
Sub inspectors, who belong to the same category, have been granted Rs 12,600 as basic salary. Even the constables will get Rs 6,800 with the new scale in place. Primary school teachers (despite the fact that they get three months paid leave during summer holidays) have got a decent hike from Rs 3,300 to Rs 6,800.
“We do multi-tasking in our jobs by handling revenue, public works and police department works as well since they are interlinked with our work. But the returns are poor,” Pai adds. 
Step further
The Foresters Association has sought an interview with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy when he visits Chamarajanagar. ‘We will try and explain the injustice meted out to us and seek some concrete action points from him. If this does not pay off, we will move the courts to obtain stay on the total implementation of pay hike recommended by fifth pay commission,” Pai reiterated.