Ramesh said the rise in poaching of animals and smuggling of their products is directly linked to the shortage of forest staff in several states.
After having public spats with his cabinet colleagues, Jairam Ramesh, minister for environment and forests, has trained his guns at state chief ministers.
Naturally, opposition-ruled states have come in for sharper criticism.
Ramesh said the rise in poaching of animals and smuggling of their products is directly linked to the shortage of forest staff in several states.
Since environment and forest are state subjects, Ramesh was careful in blasting them. He urged them to fill the vacancies so that poaching and smuggling could be significantly reduced, if not eliminated.
He did not mince words in saying that the grant of Rs5000-crore provided by the 13th Finance Commission should be used by the states for providing infrastructure and support to the frontline staff.
In a detailed letter sent to chief ministers of states that are lagging behind in recruitment of staff despite availability of funds, Ramesh said criminals were enjoying a free run in tiger reserves and national parks because of this attitude.
“Shockingly, there is a shortage of over 17% personnel in the states and most of the present staff is over-aged,” he added.
DNA has accessed a copy of the letter written by Ramesh to chief ministers of the lagging states. Ramesh has given enough figures in the letter to buttress his claim.
The letter revealed that the state of wildlife protection is worst in Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka and West Bengal. There is a shortfall of 10,000 officers and lower grade staff in these states.
States such as Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam are also short-staffed.
Ramesh said state governments had ignored the problem for many years.
“Over the last year, I have personally interacted with frontline forestry staff, guards and rangers in various corners of the country. They are doing stellar work in very adverse conditions and with very limited facilities and equipment. We need to do more for them. I am personally committed to working out special incentives for frontline staff everywhere, especially for those working in Maoist-affected areas, where we have a large share of our dense forests,” he assured the chief ministers.
The letter may create another controversy as Ramesh linked poor performance with non-recruitment of staff.
As it is, the minister’s style of functioning had already come into criticism and the prime minister had to overturn some of his decisions, including the Madhya Pradesh Hydro-Power project, where he had stopped work.
He was recently involved in a war-of-words with cabinet colleagues Kamal Nath, minister for road transport and highways and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.
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