Forest department top gets heavier; ground staff strength static

While the State government is drafting a proposal to increase the number of Principal Chief Conservators of Forests (PCCFs) and also to have more Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers in the State, not much attention is being paid to increase the ground staff who play a major role in protecting forests and wildlife.

Presently, there are four PCCFs in Karnataka - General, Wildlife, Karnataka Forest Development Corporation and Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation. But now, there is a proposal to increase this number to 10. The draft proposal is now before the Principal Secretary, DPAR for consideration. 

As per official statistics, the sanctioned strength for guards is 3,994, but the actual strength is 3,081. There are 1,865 deputy range forest officers (RFOs) against the actual strength of 2,295. There are 672 RFOs against the sanctioned strength of 765. Of this, 165 were newly recruited. There are 261 assistant conservators of forests against the sanctioned strength of 249 (30 were recently recruited). There are 112 deputy conservators of forest against sanctioned strength of 72  and 40 of them are on deputation. 

According to retired forest department officials, there is no need to increase the number of top officers, including PCCFs, as the department is already top heavy. The ground strength of the department are guards, deputy RFOs and RFOs because they keep a close watch. Officials above them are Central service officers. Karnataka should rather not take any more IFS officers.

They pointed out that during recruitment, most IFS officers prefer Karnataka, because it is easier to manage the forests here compared to states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana. The number of disputes and cases are less here. The number of IFS officials are too many in the State, which is why they are being posted to other departments, for instance, BMTC. 

Praveen Bhargav, former member of the National Board of Wildlife, said: “What is critically required is young and fit guards, foresters and rangers who form the backbone of the protection mechanism. Instead of investing on such essential frontline staff which is crucial to strengthen forest and wildlife protection, the number of officials in the topmost echelons is being increased even as the area under forests is shrinking”.

“Field management positions at the Division (Park) level need young and energetic officers, hitherto held by DCFs. Recently, these posts were upgraded as conservators. Now, there appears to be a ludicrous proposal to upgrade these posts to chief conservators, who will find it difficult to operate from taluk headquarters, leading to lesser allocation of time for crucial field work. This is a very disturbing trend which needs a serious review as it also forecloses important field posting options for DCFs,” he added. 

PCCF (General) G V Sugur explained that IFS officer recruitment is happening on a par with IAS and IPS officers, whose posts have been revised. What is happening in other states should be implemented in Karnataka too. Depending upon the work and qualification, the proposal has been chalked out. While it is important to increase the ground staff strength, it is also important to increase the number of officials to manage them. Recruitment of ground staff is also on, he added.