ATTITUDINAL CHANGE IN FORESTRY SECTOR

ATTITUDINAL CHANGE IN FORESTRY SECTOR

A.KISHAN I.F.S. (AP: 1990)

Office of Prl.CCF

Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh

What is ‘attitude’?

‘Attitude’ denotes a state of mind, mood, viewpoint, outlook, or belief. Attitudes are primarily shaped by information. A person then can have faulty attitudes based on misinformation. A healthy society, culture, and community should have a critical quality of providing a healthy diet of information to promote, support and sustain its growth and positive development.

An essential criterion for such information is the degree to which it reflects and imparts self-knowledge, critical analysis, problem-solving, vision and effective leadership. It is fair to say then that one of the ways to improve peoples attitudes and better facilitate our adjustment to circumstances is to insure that our information meets the above criteria. Since information plays such an important role in the effectiveness of people, it is known to be used as a means of confusion, distortion, or obfuscation.

The existing pattern

The Forest staff in the department contribute very less input in policy making or preparation of schemes. The tendency to go by the dictates of superiors is predominant. The funds made available by the Government and external agencies are to be spent within a time frame is the goal of the staff.

Another aspect to be considered is enforcement of the law dealing with forests and wild life. Though very few provisions of the Forest Act, Wild life Act are to be used in dealing with the offences. It is unfortunate that many a times confusion prevails in charging the offender. The procedural aspects are not well laid out and one has to learn over the years from personal experiences. Many prosecutions launched by the forest staff fail in trial stage due deficiencies in filing and wrong charging of sections etc.

The delegation of powers in various aspects is insufficient,as is felt by the staff and the clear picture on the powers vested and powers needed is not spelt out.

The administration in the department is guided by the various Manuals or instructions issued by the Head of the department. The copies of these instructions and books are seldom found with the lower staff.

The activities to be done by the executive staff of the department have increased over the years but the corresponding logistical support has not been made.

The staff is working more for enforcement of forest laws, irrespective of the changed situation.

The action of the staff in performance of duties is prone to criticism most of the times, and a word or line in appreciation of the work done is seldom seen. Apart from the above the number of disciplinary cases and recoveries in forestry sector is quite alarming compared to other departments in Government.

In view of the above the mental condition of the staff can be well imagined. And the action or reaction of staff is mechanical and not performed whole heartedly. When the action is not from the soul it can not give the expected result.

Efforts made

The departments have publicized that the management of Forests will be jointly done by the Forest staff and the villagers who are near to the forests. The forests are designated for the Forest Protection Committees for management on sustainable basis. They are permitted to draw their own management plans which are to be implemented with the support or technical guidance of the forest staff.

The erstwhile smugglers have been asked to protect the forests by providing them some means of livelihood in forestry operations. The staff, who were chasing the forest offender have to sit with the same person and discuss the plan of operations to be carried out in forest area.

Number of workshops and seminars were conducted at various levels to explain the changed situation.

Management of Change

The work done so far have made the villagers to think of their posterity, and plan for the future. But the concept could not be understood. The villagers are of the view that the forest staff was giving instructions unilaterally in earlier occasions and now they are discussing with them on execution of works. In both situations the work was done by the villager for the payment of wages. It is true that one can think of the society and others once his daily needs of food, clothing and shelter (Roti,Kapada,Makan) are met. As long as the basic needs are not provided for, the voluntary efforts of the villager cannot be expected.

Apart from the above the publicity on the new role of the staff and the villager is woefully lacking. The publicity material meant for the lower staff and villagers never reaches them and as a result the target group is suffering due to distortions in communication.

Though the joint efforts in management of forests is laudable, there should be clear demarcation of ‘duties and responsibilities’ of villagers and staff.

The villager’s role should be statutorily determined so that the resource of forest can be protected without any influence of local conditions and bias.

Similar is the situation with the staff. The are given the dual role of policeman and benefactor, and the fine differentiation in both the roles is very difficult to grasp by the lower staff who are hitherto implementing the instructions and doing more of enforcement work than the community development.

The staff should be given more exposure to the changed scenarios by providing them with sufficient printed material, to serve as reference material, and more of audio-visual aides. The media should be fully utilized as was done in the campaign of ‘family planning’, as the visuals make great impact on the attitudes. As all the staff cannot be taken on tour to different places, it is desirable that they should shown documentaries and films explaining the theme of conservation of forests and participation of people in protecting the common property resource.

Changed scenario

The implementation of principle of joint forest management is being done for over a decade now, and the existence of another mode of management is felt. The success rate of the JFM varies depending on the concerted efforts made by the individual staff member and the inclination of the concerned villagers. The importance of conservation of forests is being driven home by the judiciary also as the Apex Courts and other Courts are sternly dealing with offences involving forest conservation.

Future course of action

1. The subordinate staff should be given more exposure to the changes in management by providing them more information and material. And their voices should be heard rather than ignored.

2. The personal ‘ego’ in the officers should be made to go by gradually bringing home the point that one should not boast of past but live in present and think about the future.

3. The unnecessary victimization of the staff should be avoided, and staff should not be burdened with charge-sheets on flimsy grounds. And the disposal of disciplinary cases should be done as expeditiously as possible, preferably within six months of framing the charges.

4. The encouragement for the work done and the incentives should be increased.

5. The forest staff at all levels should be made to mix with the officers and staff of other departments so the traditional ‘closed’ mind set will go. The interaction with the environmental groups should also be increased so that they can appreciate the work done by the department and do not resort to unnecessary and avoidable criticism.

The vertical and horizontal line of communication should be improved for effective dissemination of information.

6. The staff should be tuned to act as benefactor as long as the beneficiaries are within the stipulated norms but if they cross the line the role of policeman should be donned without compromising the protection of forests.

7. The village community, represented by the Forest protection Committee and its members should be given recognition in law and should also be made jointly and severally responsible for the protection, improvement and conservation of the forest resource entrusted to them.

8. The functioning levels of the staff and people have to be redefined in view of the prevailing law and order situation in some States where the management of forests is largely effected.