The Hindu : Forest institute still headless

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

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Other States - Madhya Pradesh

Forest institute still headless

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL, FEB. 4. The Indian Institute of Forest Management, an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, continues to remain without a full-time Director just like other prime Central Government institutions linked with environment, forest and wildlife like the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) at Dehra Dun and the Tropical Forest Research Institute at Jabalpur.

The IIFM here is supposed to be the only exclusive forestry management institute of its kind in the world but insiders note that it is also the "most neglected'' organisation as at present it is functioning without a full-time Director--a situation that has been allowed to persist for almost two years by the Central Government.

On condition of anonymity, an IIFM faculty member said in a lighter vain, "It would not be wrong to say IIFM now stands for Indian Institute of Fax Management'' as most supervisory directives were being received at his institute from Delhi by fax.

The foundation of IIFM was laid by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, on February 6, 1981, after the concept of professional management of forests was put forth by the Government of India in response to the recommendations of the National commission on Agriculture, Food and Agricultural Organisation and the Swedish International Development Agency in 1974.Though the IIFM prospectus throws light on its functioning "at the global level'' and its participatory role in activities hosted by similar organisations in other parts of the world, several IIFM faculty members are unanimous in saying that there has been some serious individual-level input from few faculty members in the immediate past that has helped the organisation move ahead on a day-to-day basis. However the credibility of the organisation is still being questioned these days, one of them said and tried to corroborate this by saying that the campus recruitment is now on a decline as there is obviously apprehension among the potential employers regarding the level of inputs in the absence of a full-time Director.

Asked to spell out the drawbacks of what was being described as a "remote-controlled system of administration'', an IIFM official said that the Director-General of Forests, N.K. Joshi, who is presently holding the IIFM Director's charge, has been here hardly a few times over the last two-year period. Even the IIFM Board of Governors and its Academic Council have not met regularly during this period, he pointed out. It is being said within IIFM circles here that those who do not want to work are having a field day in the absence of proper commands down the line--so essential for ensuring discipline in any institution on a day-to-day basis. Some IIFM staffers and employees are allegedly carrying on with their own "consultancy service or private business'' as they have plenty of spare time at their disposal.

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Forest institute still headless