No Deputation for forest staff: Ganesh Kumar

THEKKADY:: Ecologue-2012, organised by the Jaiji Peter Foundation in association with the State Forest Department and Periyar Tiger Reserve began here on Friday. The two-day workshop on ‘Biodiversity conservation in a changing scenario’ is the 10th Ecologue organised by the foundation for mediapersons.Speaking at an interactive session in connection with the event, Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar elaborated on the new projects to be implemented by the department. Considering the shortage of officials in the department, a decision has been taken to not let forest officials go on deputation, he said. “Many officials of the Department have been on deputation at other establishments. We have decided to completely stop it. A notification in this regard will be published soon,” he said.The minister said that a decision had been taken to bring in a data book for captive elephants. The record will have all major details about the animal and its owner. Implementation of solar system at the forest headquarters and setting up a green theatre in Alappuzha are some of the other decisions taken, he said. Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Rajaraja Varma who spoke at the first technical session on ‘Man-animal conflict’ briefed on the possibilities and reasons for man-animal conflict.Referring to the Constitution, he pointed out why protection of nature and compassion to the living creature are important. “The inter-generational memory of animals like elephants make them use the same route every time they pass through a particular area. If we know their behavioural specialities and how they respond to various situations we could avoid many possible conflicts between humans and wild animals,” he said.There were sessions on ‘Biodiversity conservation -learning from amphibians’ led by S D Biju of University of Delhi and ‘Biodiversity conservation in Western Ghats’ by E Kunhikrishnan, associate professor, Department of Zoology, University College, Thiruvananthapuram.