Two Forest Officials killed by Red sanders Smugglers

Two Forest Officials killed by Red sanders Smugglers

          It is unfortunate that two forest protection staff are killed by Red sanders smugglers in Seshachalam hills, near Tirupati.It is well known fact that Red Sanders wood (RS wood) is mostly endemic to Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu and occurs in the Seshachalam hills spread over the districts of Chittoor,Nellore, YSR Kadapa districts.As one tonne of forest grown RS wood is getting few lakhs of rupees in the international market, in these days of recession it is lucrative as with few thousands of expenses few lakhs can be obtained. Persons from Tamil Nadu come to Tirupati and surrounding areas as pilgrims in tourist buses and enter the forests to cut and fell, debark the RS wood.As soon as the wood is ready it is either transported immediately in trucks or hidden so that it can be taken at appropriate time.

          The attention now got by the sacrifice of the forest staff should be utilized to impress the Government that Forest Protection is linked with LAW AND ORDER problem and it cannot be done by forest staff alone, hence sister departments should also be involved.

          The following are some measures that can be thought of in this regard:

1.   Forest staff should not venture into forest without sufficient staff and weapons, as well as back up staff. A TREE CAN BE GROWN AGAIN BUT A LIFE LOST CANNOT BE BROUGHT BACK.

2.   Forest staff of all cadres should be issued small arms. There are already Government orders issued in the year 1991 in Andhra Pradesh which empowers a Forest Officer to use fire arm to the extent of killing a person, and Forest Officer cannot be arrested without a Magisterial enquiry.

3.   To decrease the smuggling steps should be taken to flood the market with legal material.A.P.Forest Department is having about 11,000 tonnes of seized RSwood in godowns. It should be sold in open auction so that interested parties can freely purchase and use in India. Example of Gold Control Act is relevant as once the controls on Gold purchase are removed, the smuggling of Gold has come down drastically.

4.   A protection force on the lines of Railway Protection Force should be raised exclusively to protect the forest wealth. The FOREST PROTECTION FORCE should consist of mainly with ex-servicemen so that no further training is required in use of weapons. The use of ex-servicemen is being done in Delhi quite effectively and such example should be emulated.

5.   Services of Police Officers should be taken on DEPUTATION to Forest Department. Few years ago one DIG of Police was on deputation to A.P.Forest Department to co-ordinate with Forest and Police staff. The DIG of Police with sufficient field staff is essential as they can share the intelligence gathering from the regular Police, which is otherwise not shared by Police with Forest Officials.

6.   The gathering of smugglers in forest areas does not happen in minutes, so enough number of informers should be employed at all strategic locations so that their entry is noted and remedial action can be planned effectively.

7.   The use of satellite imagery should be increased to track the smugglers or the ingress or egress etc. Use of Unmanned air Vehicle(UAV) available now should be used, though it is costly to engage, so that persons sitting in far off place can see visually the movement of smugglers in real time, and plan measures to apprehend the smugglers.

8.   All the forest staff, permanent and temporary as well as persons from general public who assist the protection staff should be sufficiently insured so that immediate financial help is assured to the bereaved families, as the promised relief package takes  time in Government due to usual delays. The bereaved families should not go round the offices to obtain promised financial assistance or the promised job to one of the family member.

9.   The Andhra Pradesh Forest Act,1967 analogous to the archaic Indian Forest Act,1927 is outdated as they do not have deterrent provisions, on lines of Wild Life (Protection) Act,1972. Proposals were submitted years ago to Government to amend the A.P.Forest Act but they are not proceeded further. An Ordinance was also drafted and submitted but it is also under process in Government.  With the existing legal provisions, a forest offender when produced in a Court can get bail in minutes! As the forest offences are bailable and Magistrate has to inform the offender whether he desires to go on bail! The Forest Offences should be made non-bailable by increasing the period of imprisonment to more than three years. All Offences, generally, with more than three years period of imprisonment are non-bailable.

10.                Apart from Timber smuggling the Forest laws are ineffective to deal with encroachment. The Forest (Conservation)Act,1980 regulates the controlled encroachment by different agencies. With the implementation of Forest Rights Act, the encroachment is rampant, especially in Andhra Pradesh which has distinction of handing over 14 lakh acres of Forest land at the request of one Chief Minister. Persons are freely encroaching and courting arrest so that their future claims can be made using the forest offence records. In Andhra Pradesh few thousand acres of encroachment by Government in pre-1980 period, and second phase is with RoFR Act, and hence people encouraged to wait third phase of forest land distribution!

LET US MAKE ENOUGH NOISE SO THAT THE POLICY MAKERS AND LAW MAKERS HEAR THE VOICE OF FORESTER THAT FOREST AND FOREST LAND IS DISAPPEARING FAST AND IT HAS TO BE CONTROLLED ON WAR FOOTING.

The Impact of Climate Change studied by UN Scientific panel on existing and future risks to Asia from Climate Change (as reported in the English Daily THE HINDU dated 15.12.2013 at page 10) and they are

a)    50% reduction in agricultural yields

b)   More frequent and intense heat waves

c)    Increases in heavy rain and temperature which will increase the communicable diseases

d)   Green houses gases will dry up the water resources.

FORESTS ARE TO BE PRESERVED IN THE INTEREST OF BETTER FUTURE FOR MANKIND AND ANY INVESTMENT IN FOREST SECTOR IS LIKE  A FIXED DEPOSIT WHICH ENSURES MULTIFOLD BENEFIT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.

WE,FORESTERS, SHOULD GEAR UP AND DO THE NEEDFUL TO CONSERVE THE FORESTS AND PROTECT THE FOREST WEALTH AND FOREST LAND. 

                KISHAN (AP-90)

8978797966

akulakishan@gmail.com

FORESTS FOR FUTURE

If we have to conserve forests for future generations we have to guard the existing forests quite jealously and also increase the coverage of vegetation. Can this be done by existing infrastructure,man power and the forest laws?

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.