6 January, 2024: The three-day training workshop organized by the Botanical Survey of India for the Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers on “Plant Identification and Nomenclature,” nominated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Govt. of India, was successfully completed on January 5, 2024, at the Central National Herbarium, Howrah. The training was concluded with a panel discussion on “Improvement in the Working of Forest Departments—Need for Career Development through Training and Improvement of Skills” by experts from different fields. The discussion was attended by Dr. A.A. Mao, Director, Botanical Survey of India; Sri Soumitra Dasgupta, IFS (Retd.) former PCCF & HOFF, Forest Department, West Bengal; Dr. Dhriti Banerjee, Director, Zoological Survey of India; Dr. Sangeeta Dubey, IFS (Retd.), West Bengal; and Prof. Vishwas Chavan, IISER, Berhampur.
The experts of the panel session called for enhanced interdepartmental coordination among the Botanical Survey of India, the Zoological Survey of India, and the State Forest Departments so as to come up with a more effective and strategic assessment of the bioresources and to enunciate better monitoring and management practices that will be in alignment with several international conventions, such as CBD, CITES, TRAFFIC, and World Heritage Sites. The panel experts were of the opinion that the researchers should share the botanical and zoological knowledge of the research organizations with the forest managers. The forest officials also emphasized the need for such training programs more and more in the future to synchronize the development of scientific research with conservation efforts. Mr. Dasgupta urged the forest officers to find out the USP of the training program and share it with their colleagues so that the knowledge gained can be shared with the front-line forest officials. One of the central ideas of the discussion was to go for conservation of the entire ecosystem and not only the forest since the ecosystem includes landscapes, both macro- and microflora and fauna, soil, and water of a given geographical area.
The training program ended with concluding remarks by Dr. S.S. Dash, Scientist-F and Course Co-Coordinator and In-Charge, Technical Section, BSI HQ. He thanked all the participants for their fervent participation and attentiveness throughout the workshop. He also welcomed the suggestions shared by the participating forest officials with regard to achieving better efficacy by combining management practices with scientific data. Dr. Dash was hopeful to periodically come up with this kind of workshop for the foresters in the future. The Botanical Survey of India has been able to achieve the desired objectives set for the training program for the IFS officers, said Dr. Dash.
