The Tamil Nadu Forest Department provides us with the following data on their Organizational Structure.
Department Staff
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) = 2 (incl Chief Wildlife Warden - CWLW)
Additional PCCFs = 10
Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) = 26
Conservator of Forests (CF) = 18
Deputy CF = 68
Assistant CF = 75
Total = 199 nos.
Ministerial Staff = 5393 nos.
making it a total of 5592 who manage desk jobs.
Field Staff
Rangers = 562
Foresters = 1312
Forest Guards = 2349
Forest Watchers = 1362
Total = 5585 nos.
Of the above field staff over 50% of them are above the age of 50 and hardly venture into the forest for monitoring their respective habitat. A classic example was that during the wildlife census in 2011, our field volunteers ventured into one such beat, with a forester, two guards and an anti-poaching watcher and got lost. This area is supposed to be their regular beat and they were lost! It took my friend a compass to register his bearings and bring them out to safety! Their justification - 'Yaana kaadu, Saar' meaning 'Forest filled with elephants'.
For an organization to succeed, the structure of the same should be a pyramid with a single leader on top followed by more of his junior staff ending with the largest amount of forest watchers. Unfortunately, the situation here is an inverted pyramid with a very weak base.
Add to the equation, the hand-in-glove attitude of quite a few in collusion with offenders (land grabbers, poachers, revellers), we can clearly understand where our forests are heading.
Is all lost or will someone look at change?
