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Forest dept to regulate foreign funded research

Last Updated 28 February 2015, 18:48 IST

Claiming that foreign funded wildlife research had affected the bio-diversity of the region, Manoj Kumar Shukla, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kodagu, said that the Forest department would analyse applications for research activities in detail, before granting permission.

He was speaking at a workshop on training for competitive examinations, at Karnataka State Open University, on Saturday.

It was once believed that the funds sanctioned for research in forests of the country, was an incentive for young researchers in the region. The researchers, who took up research using these funds, dispatched all the findings of the research to their funding agencies in the West. This allowed foreigners to have patents on almost all the medicinal plants available in the forests of our country, he said. In order to avoid a repeat of such cases, the government had implemented the Bio-diversity Act, he said.

“Funds are not being sanctioned to the Forest department on a priority basis. This is not the problem of Karnataka alone. Even the Centre has not shown great interest towards the conservation of forests,” he said. He added that the department was also hit by acute staff shortage. “However, the government has shown encouraging signs for a proposal of the Forest department to employ specialists to capture tigers and leopards, and for conservation activities,” he said.

Speaking on forest fires, he said that such fires rarely occurred under natural circumstances, and most of them were man-made. Few people were setting the forest on fire to take revenge against department staff. “People are found to be using dried dung cakes and cycle tires to set fire on the forest,” he said.

He added that a harmonious relationship between the department and residents of forest fringe villages was essential to prevent forest fires. “Without such a relationship, no amount of funds will help,” he added.

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(Published 28 February 2015, 18:48 IST)

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