Tweet
Train 50% staff or lose funds: Wildlife Board
The 24th standing committee meeting decision of National Board For Wildlife (NBWL), on restricting “Central funding to protected areas directly under the wildlife wing and managed by trained officers”, may be cause of concern for the State forest departments.
The meeting chaired by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has stated, “The States should get it clear that if 50 per cent of their wildlife Protected Areas (PAs) should be manned by trained personnel within next 3 years.”
According to Dr MK Ranjitsinh, Chairman Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and member standing committee, NBWL, there is a nine-month training course for 20 trainees in WII and the training is imparted to the officials free of cost. Yet, the States, despite serious dearth of trained and specialised officers in wildlife department were hardly sending about two officials.
“This only showed the apathy of the State Governments towards this important issue. He even suggested that Central funding should not be extended to the States who were not serious about the training of their officials in wildlife science”, he said.
Dr Ranjitsinh’s contention was further hammered by Biswajit Mohanty, member, who called for amending the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) itself by making training of wildlife staff as one of the conditions for the States being eligible to seek central funds for wildlife management from MoEF.
A senior forest official on condition of anonymity however pointed out that it was true that wildlife wings and protected areas were run by officials with non-wildlife background. “But, if we stop funding because personnel with wildlife specialisation were not posted, we may not be able to spend the amount sanctioned to the MoEF (Wildlife Division) by the Planning Commission.
In such a situation, the Planning Commission may then downsize the funds allocated to the wildlife sector from the present `70 crores which would create further problems, and ultimately grossly under funded sanctuaries would suffer further, he felt.”
The sources from certain forest departments also pointed out that gross generalisation should be avoided since there were several States that make serious efforts to train their wildlife staff but on many occasions fund crisis was a deterrent.
They felt that the performance, inclination and interest of individuals rather than insist only on posting of wildlife trained personnel in wildlife areas. In many cases, non-trained personnel perform better than wildlife trained personnel. However, trained officers should be encouraged to be posted in wildlife areas.
The 24th standing committee meeting decision of National Board For Wildlife (NBWL), on restricting “Central funding to protected areas directly under the wildlife wing and managed by trained officers”, may be cause of concern for the State forest departments.
The meeting chaired by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has stated, “The States should get it clear that if 50 per cent of their wildlife Protected Areas (PAs) should be manned by trained personnel within next 3 years.”
According to Dr MK Ranjitsinh, Chairman Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and member standing committee, NBWL, there is a nine-month training course for 20 trainees in WII and the training is imparted to the officials free of cost. Yet, the States, despite serious dearth of trained and specialised officers in wildlife department were hardly sending about two officials.
“This only showed the apathy of the State Governments towards this important issue. He even suggested that Central funding should not be extended to the States who were not serious about the training of their officials in wildlife science”, he said.
Dr Ranjitsinh’s contention was further hammered by Biswajit Mohanty, member, who called for amending the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) itself by making training of wildlife staff as one of the conditions for the States being eligible to seek central funds for wildlife management from MoEF.
A senior forest official on condition of anonymity however pointed out that it was true that wildlife wings and protected areas were run by officials with non-wildlife background. “But, if we stop funding because personnel with wildlife specialisation were not posted, we may not be able to spend the amount sanctioned to the MoEF (Wildlife Division) by the Planning Commission.
In such a situation, the Planning Commission may then downsize the funds allocated to the wildlife sector from the present `70 crores which would create further problems, and ultimately grossly under funded sanctuaries would suffer further, he felt.”
The sources from certain forest departments also pointed out that gross generalisation should be avoided since there were several States that make serious efforts to train their wildlife staff but on many occasions fund crisis was a deterrent.
They felt that the performance, inclination and interest of individuals rather than insist only on posting of wildlife trained personnel in wildlife areas. In many cases, non-trained personnel perform better than wildlife trained personnel. However, trained officers should be encouraged to be posted in wildlife areas.
