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Ex-Armymen to guard Rajasthan forests

JAIPUR: Rajasthan is trying to induct some young blood into the ageing field staff of its Forest Department by recruiting ex-servicemen. The average age of forest guards in the State’s Project Tiger sanctuaries, Ranthambhore and Sariska, is above 50 years and many of them are no more considered fit for the arduous jungle patrol.

The State is planning to recruit 1,000 ex-servicemen initially for deployment in batches of 100 each in the Project Tiger areas and in districts with sanctuaries. The first group of some 650 applicants were interviewed and tested for physical fitness in Sariska, Ranthambhore and in the capital on Friday. “The process is going on well though the number of applications has been less than expected,” R.N.Mehrotra, Chief Wildlife Warden, Rajasthan, said.The absence of any fresh recruitment of lower level staff in the past two decades have rendered the park managements in Rajasthan incapable of providing protection to the flora and fauna in the face of increased threat perception to wildlife and additional fire power from poachers.

The Central Tiger Task Force, appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 in the wake of disappearance of tigers from Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district, in its report noted that average age of forest guards in Ranthambhore and Sariska was above 50. The situation is no different in other project tiger sanctuaries in the country such as Corbet, Kanha, Palamau, Simlipal, Dampa, Bandhavgarh, Dudhwa, Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam and Pench (Madhya Pradesh).

The two-day meeting of the Field Directors of Project Tiger Reserves, held at Ranthambhore in June this year in the presence of Union Ministers of State for Environment and Forest, S.Raghupathy and Namonarain Meena, had strongly recommended recruitment of ex-servicemen to add muscle to the managements of the tiger parks. In Rajasthan such a recruitment is taking place for the first time but it has been tried out in some places including Satpura reserve in Madhya Pradesh in the past with satisfactory results.

“I could get some good candidates. Out of the 40 appeared for the interview and physical test, I have cleared 34, “ P.S.Somashekar, Field Director, Sariska Tiger Reserve, told this Correspondent from Alwar, sounding somewhat happy.

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