Describe how communities have conserved and protected forests and wildlife in india?

Question

Describe how communities have conserved and protected forests and wildlife in india?

Answer 1

The Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 for protection, conservation and regeneration of forest resources. The recruitment to this Service is made through the Union Public Service Commission on the basis of annual Competitive Examination. While the service is an All India Service, it is not to be confused with Indian Foreign Service, which is commonly thought to be in the same league as Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Forest Service. A separate examination, which is slightly different from the Civil Services Examination as having Science background compulsory for candidates, is held for the Indian Forest Service.

India is one of the first countries in the world to have introduced scientific management of its forests. In 1864 the then British India Government started the Imperial Forest Department and in 1866 appointed Dr. Dietrich Brandis, a German Forest officer, Inspector General of Forests. Having recognized the need to have a premier forest service to manage the varied natural resources of the vast country and to organize the affairs of the Imperial Forest Department, Imperial Forest Service was constituted in 1867.

Having realized the importance of a multi-tier forest administration in the federal and provincial Governments for effective management of forest resources, the British India Government also constituted Provincial Forest Service and Executive & Subordinate Services, which were quite similar to the present day forest administrative hierarchy.

The officers appointed to the Imperial Forest Service from 1867 to 1885 were trained in Germany and France. Thereafter, until 1905 they were trained at Cooper's Hill, London, which had been one of the prestigious professional colleges of Forestry at that time. From 1905 to 1926 the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh had undertaken the task of training the officers of the Imperial Forest Service. The Imperial Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, popularly known all over the world today as FRI, was established at Dehra Dun in the year 1906. The baton to train the IFS officers was passed on to Forest Research Institute, which it did successfully from 1927 to 1932. Subsequently the Indian Forest College (IFC) was established in the year 1938 at Dehra Dun and the officers recruited to the Superior Forest Service by the provinces/states were trained there.

The subject of "Forestry" which was managed by the Federal Government until then, was transferred to the "Provincial List" by the Government of India Act, 1935 and subsequently recruitment to the Imperial Forest Service was discontinued.

The Indian Forest Service, one of the three All India Services, was constituted in the year 1966 under the All India Services Act, 1951 by the Government of India. In the Government of India, at the Centre, the Director General of Forests is the highest post. The Director General of Forests is selected from amongst the senior-most PCCFs of all the states.

The main mandate of the service is the implementation of the National Forest Policy which envisages scientific management of forests and to exploit them on a sustained basis for primary timber products, among other things. Since 1935 the management of the forests remained in the hands of the Provincial Governments and even today the Forest Departments are managing the forests of the country under the respective State governments.