No. of Foresters being trained every year in Assam Forest School           

40

No. of Forest Guards being trained every year in Assam Forest Guards' School    

40

No. of Subordinate Forest Officers trained in Refresher's Course in 2005-06     

400

 Departmental Organization (as in 2005-06)

Territorial

Wildlife

Social Forestry

R E & W.P

Functional -

Total

An analysis on Human Resource Development – Assam Forest Frontline Staff

Forest management practices have undergone sea change over the last several decades. Assam Forest Department was established during 1874 and Classical forestry practices as per Forest Policy of Forest Act, 1878 crafted by German Forester Brandis was primarily meant for revenue generation from the forest resources on a sustainable basis. But after independence the crisis for industrial and fuel wood gave birth to the concept of plantation forestry and thence social forestry. Subsequently, the focus was shifted to conservation and development based on ecosystem management concept as a new strategy to conserve and manage the forest and wildlife resources. This was followed by National Forest Policy 1988, which stressed on biodiversity conservation and management of forests by the forest dwellers/tribal. Joint forest management guidelines were issued by Govt. of India vide its resolution dated 01/06/1990. At the same time, the global concern for environmental degradation gave rise to Rio Summit 1992 wherein the conservation management and sustainable development of forests based on scientific management of forests was stressed. All these developments have resulted in diversification of the role of front line staff of the forest department. They have to cope up with the multifarious activities for conservation of forests and wildlife resources and eliciting community participation. This requires a paradigm shift and focus on the new role of the foresters. The staff is under tremendous pressure as most of the subordinate staffs trained in the traditional forestry practices are handicapped in handling variety of functions they are expected to perform. The specialized jobs in the present context require harnessing of modern scientific and management inputs which can be handled by a specially trained manpower. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that Forest department has not been able to induct new blood in the services since 1991 as fresh recruitments are banned. Thus the aging staff with limited capacity to work hard and cope up with the heavy pressures of varied class of duties has created management problems. The staff has to work round the clock as most of the forest offenders and poachers operate during the night and the staff cannot have peaceful sleep after days work. The excessive pressure and lack of basic amenities and living conditions particularly in remote and far-flung areas have resulted in lot of frustration in the front line staff. The most critical factor leading to frustration and general empathetic attitude of the frontline staff is their general neglect and inadequate and limited avenues for promotion. Even after 20-25 years of service they do not get a single promotion. This is due to lack of career planning and proper management system for frontline staff. The situation is further aggravated by the tendency of the politicians to centralize the powers of transfers and postings and there are no fixed tenures for the frontline staff to man difficult situations. This is responsible for erosion of the authority at the various levels of the administrative hierarchy. This calls for overhauling and revamping the state forest department so that it can cope up with the changing scenario and fulfill the expectations of the society. Further reestablishing the administrative authority and decentralization is the imperative need of the hour recalling urgent action.

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