Capacity Building a need in Forestry Sector of India

The scheme “Capacity Building in Forestry Sector”, as formulated now, covers the whole gamut of the Forestry Sector Training needs and attempts to address the HRD needs at all levels of the forestry administration. In addition the components “Training of Personnel of other services” and “Training of other stakeholders” aim to expose the members of the civil society and the non-forestry service who have an interface with the forestry sector, to the realities, needs and challenges of the forestry & wildlife sector. The proposedscheme “Capacity Building in Forestry Sector” will be implemented through 11th Five Year Plan and has the following components:-

Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA): (Existing Through this component professional induction training of directly recruited IFS Officers, skill up-gradation of officerspromoted to IFS, advanced Forest Management Courses/Mandatory Mid-Career Trainings, refresher courses/seminars/workshops for IFS officers and sponsored courses for personnel of the other services are organized. The IGNF, Dehradun implements this component.

Directorate of Forest education (DFE) : (Existing Component)

This component, earlier named as State Forest Service and Rangers Colleges, supports professional induction courses for the directly recruited SFS officers and Ros, their in service trainings, theme based seminars and workshops. The DFE, Dehradun implements this component.

Training of Indian Forest Service Officers: (Existing Component)

In this component one-week, compulsory trainings and thematic workshops are organized providing opportunities of vertical interaction amongst IFS officers. Officers are also sponsored for long-term training course.  The RT-Division, Ministry of Environment and Forests implements this component.

Training of Personnel of other Services: (New Component)

Awareness programmes would be undertaken through short-term trainings, workshop and study tour for the personnel o various Departments such as Police, Revenue, Customs, etc. About 30 one-week courses and 20 workshops are proposed to train about 1500-2000 personnel per year. This component will be implemented through IGNFA, Dehradun & DFE, Dehradun.

Training of Other Stakeholders : (New Component)

The other stake holders include Panchayat members, elected representatives, teacher, nature clubs/eco-clubs, social activities, NGOs, and media persons. It is proposed to organize study tours, workshops and seminars for these stakeholders. Approximately 70 Training Programme/Visits for 1500-2000 persons are proposed per year. This component will be implemented through DFE, Dehradun.

Foreign Training of Forestry Personnel: (New Component)

This component is aimed at encouraging specialization amongst the forestry personnel by sponsoring them for various short-term and long-term training courses at various Institutions overseas. Approximately 60 officers are proposed to be sponsored every year. This component will be implemented by Research & Training division of Ministry of Environment and Forests with the help of IGNFA, Dehradun.

Capacity Development for Forest Management & Training of Personal: (Externally Aided Component)

This is an externally aided component aimed at improving training of frontline forestry force. The proposal has two major objectives, namely to strengthen infrastructure of the forestry training schools of SFDs by establishing new training Schoolsin those States that do not have one. The other objective is to strengthen training of frontline forestry personnel throughsyllabus revision, building up a pool of Master Trainers/Trainers and training of frontline forest force in the States.

This component will be in a project mode with financial support from JICA. The total cost of the component is Rs. 225 crore for a period of five years. The loan component is of Rs. 206 crore and the rest is Central Plan Component. The Project will be initially implemented in ten States namely Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. There are three buffer States namely Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The States have been selected based on certain criteria, including non-existence of any external aided project in the forestry sector in the concerned State and paucity of training infrastructure, during the project development stage.

For implementing this component there will be a Steering Committee and a Central Project Monitoring Unit (CPMU) in the Ministry and State Project Monitoring Unit (SPMU), one in each implementing State. The central PMU would release/reimburse funds to implementing State for their Annual Plans of Operation. The CPMU would utilize funds for activities such as Master trainings, consultancies and monitoring etc.

Lets us all make sure this is implemented by using RTI