DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The Vice- President M. Venkaiah Naidu, those states which are doing good work in conserving forest should be given its benefits and rewarded with incentives. To preserve forests, the local people, panchayats and local bodies should be made sensitive and they be given ‘operational rights’. This will give encourage to the states and the people to increase green cover. Before this he along with governor Dr. KK Paul, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan jointly lighted the traditional lamp to inaugurate the convocation ceremony of IFS (Indian Forest Service) Probationers at Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA),  convocation hall in Dehradun on Wednesday.

Naidu said that It is important to save forests for our children and coming generations.  Calling upon the forest Probationers to work with dedication for the country, Vice-President said that along with forest conservation it is important to turn every national programme into a people’s movement. The emancipation of the man standing last in row in the society should be the aim. Forest means “ Far from rest ” and urged the forest officers to work with the people and for their betterment.

It is important to protect and strengthen integrated eco-system with the help of continuous scientific methods. He said that forest services are a challenging job and many forest officers had sacrificed their lives while protecting forests. He called upon the forest officers to specially look after the tribal’s staying in the forest by helping the, training them and working to help in their overall development. He also said solid steps must also be taken to tackle ‘man-animal conflict’. He also honored those who did well during their training at Indian Forest Service 2016-18 batch.

Need to implement ‘Green Accounting’: Governor

Uttarakhand Governor Dr. K.K. Paul congratulated passed out IFS Probationers and said that professional and trained foresters can understand the problem of forest. He said that Doon valley is known as the ‘Cradle for Indian Forestry’. He said ‘Chipko Movement’ which was started for environment conservation is being considered as model in the entire world and was started in Himalaya. He said that forest officers should use intense scientific techniques and social-economic inputs for forest conservation. He spoke on the need of more research in the field of forest conservation and changes in forest management at a large scale. He said forests play a pivotal role in checking natural disasters like flood, famine and soil erosion. He said forest officers should use scientific knowledge and focus on making locals technically skillful.

Expressing concern over increasing emission of global green house gases, the Governor said that the problem has taken a serious turn due to increasing deforestation. He said ‘Green Accounting’ procedure should be followed in the same way as economists calculate GDP. This is more important for hilly states like Uttarakhand.

Chief Minister, Rawat has said that hard work, and dedication has finally paid off today but this day is also adding to their responsibilities. Long and challenging career is waiting them. Importance of forest has been increasing every day and urged upon the young officers to contribute to forest conservation. He said 71 percent of the lands in Uttarakhand are under forest cover and the state is the land of ‘Chipko Movement’.

He expressed hope that newly passed out Officers would work towards new technologies and research. Forest resources are the base of our lives and there is a big challenge to have a balance between forest conservation and basic human needs. It is the duty of everyone to make draw maximum benefits from forest without disturbing it. Referring to Uttarkashi eco- sensitize zone, CM said that there is need to use new technologies for the welfare of society without disturbing the environment. He stressed upon the need to use new technologies in checking incidents of forest fires. Less number of forest fire incidents is reported this year since the state government has introduced many steps to check forest fires.

In his address, Dr Harsh Vardhan spoke on the need of strengthening those community relying on forest for their livelihood, long term beneficial goal from forest, developing income generating source for villagers, and to work to check climate change and to work towards forest conservation.  He hoped that young officers would prove their worth.

53 IFS trainees passed out today.

Dr Shashi Kumar, Director of Indira Gandhi forest Academy informed that for the 2016-18 professional course, Five officers from Uttar Pradesh, six from Bihar, three each from Delhi and Punjab, while one from West Bengal, seven from Rajasthan, one from Madhya Pradesh, six from Tamil Nadu and two trainees were from Jharkhand. Out of these, four are from Maharashtra, three from Karnataka, four from Andhra Pradesh, two from Haryana and four from Telangana were awarded honours diplomas. Two foreign trainees from Bhutan also passed out today.

He said that honours diploma was awarded to 18 trainees who have secured more than 75 percent marks. An ‘Associate Diploma’ was awarded from IGNFA to all the officers on their successful completion of training. These officers were given training on forestry and administration and they visited Finland/Russia/Spain and Italy for special overseas exposure visit.