Forest crimes increasing at alarming rate, says Rajendra Dhongde

Rajendra Dhongde was the state Range Forest Association’s (RFA) president for 12 years. During his tenure, he fought for the rights of state range forest officers (RFOs).

At the fifth conference of state RFA held at Balewadi in Pune last week, Dhongde on behalf of the association put forth demands such as providing four-wheelers to officials working at territorial and wildlife ranges, elevating 143 RFOs to the posts of assistant conservator of forests (ACFs), decentralisation of power and better pay-scale for RFOs.

The state forest minister, Patangrao Kadam, present at the event, agreed to implement some of the demands. The superannuated officer spoke to DNA about the problems of the forest officials and other issues.

When was the state RFA formed and what are its functions?
The RFA was formed in 1940 during the British rule. Every state has its own RFA and there is an apex body overseeing and coordinating activities of all the state RFAs. In our state, there are about 789 RFA members and at the all-India level, there were 12,000 RFA members.

The association's focus is to solve problems of the RFOs in discharging their duties in preservation of the forest cover and creating awareness among people about the importance of forests. These officers need weapons and vehicles to protect a large forest area. 

The RFOs have to ensure discipline among the field staff, protect the forest cover within their jurisdiction, deal with forest offence cases, handle court-related cases and carry out developmental projects. The most important task of the RFO is to handle man-animal conflict.

What is the scenario of forest-related offences?
The offences related to forests are increasing at an alarming rate. In India, crime cases related to wildlife are the third highest in the world. The offenders use modern vehicles and sophisticated weapons to commit offences.

These anti-social elements take advantage of the remoteness and vastness of the forest cover. Unless we arm the officials with weapons and proper vehicles, it would be difficult to take on the criminals involved in activities such as depleting the forest cover and poaching.

Earlier, forests were not considered as the priority sector. We had to organise peaceful stirs to force the government to provide RFOs with arms. In 1997, the state government agreed to our demands.

Since 2008, the government stopped deploying forest officials for election duties. We had moved the court on the issue since working during elections neglects safety of the forests.

What are the future challenges before the forest department?
According to National Forest Policy of 1952, 33% of the geographical area should be under forest. But in Maharashtra it is only 21%. Moreover, just 8% of the forest cover has adequate density. The biggest challenge is how to increase the forest cover and its density.

The forest officials and the common people should come forward and work on the issue. There is an imperative need to focus on the conservation of forest and plantation to fight the global warming threat.