They are on call for 24 hours. An indispensable work force, but totally neglected, are the daily wage earners working for the forest department.
Salaries often come weeks and months late. Many of them have been working for over 20 years and still continue to be daily wage earners.
And now, their daily wages have been slashed! From an earlier rate of Rs 128 per day it has been made Rs 108 per day with effect from January.
The department earlier used to adopt the wages fixed by PWD but has now decided to go by the minimum wages fixed by the labour department.
According to sources, the forest department has taken this step due to funds non-availability. Unlike elsewhere, here the works undertaken have a maintenance aspect, whether it be planting saplings or digging pits. The spillover money is usually made use for this. But with budget constraints, this has reduced. As a result, it directly tells on the daily wage lot.
However, it would have been a more saner decision to go along with the present rate till the minimum wage reached the same, and then switch over. In these times of inflation, it is unheard of to reduce wages. More so, at the lower rungs.
Soma (name changed) has been a daily wage worker for 25 years. He has no great hopes of being made permanent. His wages have never come on time, and now the cut would mean almost a quarter less that he will earn every month. He was part of a delegation going to present a memorandum to the governor. “It is all due to our top persons. They don’t care. Their salaries and perks are all on time. If they want, they can increase the wage. They can make us permanent.”
That would make sense given the 40 per cent vacancy at the guard and watcher levels in the state. (That is a conservative estimate.) The PCCF who makes decisions regarding wages was not reachable. As to recruitments these have been stopped by most state finance departments as cost-cutting measure.
The daily wage earners in the department constitute almost 60 per cent of the workforce, and are employed for civil works and afforestation, besides working days together at the anti-poaching camps situated in the interiors of forest. Many are watchers and go out on night patrols, armed with a torch and a lathi!
Most of the problems are blamed on delayed release of funds by the Centre, whether it be for works to be undertaken or wages. With almost 75 per cent coming from the Centre, any delay adds to the delay of the state releasing its funds too.
Considering that the Centre recently announced Rs 500 crore towards relocation of people from the tiger reserves, one wonders if it is lack of resources or the priorities of the government that leads to neglect of forest and wildlife conservation.
With most daily wage earners drawn from the local community, the department has a good opportunity to use their expertise in the terrain to its advantage. It is the ideal chance to garner local support to the cause of conservation and protection, instead of allowing poachers to use them.
Talk to any officer and he will vouch for the commitment of the workers. Even when agitating against the pay slash, many of them saw to it that it was not at the cost of pending work. One ACF relates how three workers got into a well, which was on the point of capsizing, just to save a deer!
It is a pity that when everyone is talking of the alarming drop in tiger numbers, no one is addressing some of the root issues. If protection has to mean anything, the needs of the foot soldiers have to be taken care of. Pay them well, arm them well and there will be no need for treatises on how to save the tigers or the elephants or the forests.
It is well-known that our forests have shrunk in size considerably. The wildlife numbers have shrunk at a faster rate. The two important reasons are poaching and habitat loss due to encroachment and ‘development’ projects.
The former can be tackled if the vacancies are filled on an emergency mode. There is no dearth of candidates. Next, it is necessary to arm them with firearms and an amended law! At present, the forest guard will only end up visiting the court should he shoot at poachers. This is because the department is not recognised as a ‘force’ by the law.
Regarding habitat loss, there is need to focus on consolidating boundary and conserving existing forests. But, alas, again what stares the department in the face is a lack of adequate skilled staff for surveying land. This has to be a continuous measure, as one official explains, if encroachment has to be contained.
It is to be hoped that the governor takes note of some of these vital issues that have to be addressed urgently if we want to retain even a semblance of a forest and wildlife.
