Protecting the state’ forests has always been an uphill task for the forest department, which comes up against a number of hurdles in the course of its duties, but now it is confronting a new problem that threatens to make its job even more difficult.
Its officers are ageing with a good many foresters and rangers now over 50 years old and unable to do as much service in the forests as before.
The department is able to provide service training to only about 70 per cent of its rangers as the rest are over 53, and not fit enough to undergo the rigours of working in deep jungles.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which made these observations in its recent report, took the state government to task for poor human resource management.
It also found that the Tamil Nadu Forest Academy at Coimbatore which conducts refresher and short duration courses for IFS officers, rangers and foresters , had not performed satisfactorily.
As against the target of training 590 rangers only 430 were trained as the rest were too old and of the 1,010 foresters ( appointed in 2009) only 666 (or 66 per cent ) were trained, as a result of poor infrastructure at the academy, the CAG said.
“The situation is worse in case of anti- poaching watchers (APW) . Although we are the foot soldiers of the forest department, we are not given proper shoes or uniforms,” said an anti- poaching watcher of the Anamalai Tiger sanctuary.