Specialist Doctors to be called on deputation from Veteritanary Department
10-members teams to be appointed for monitoring elephant affected forest divisions
Important meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel : Major decisions taken for wildlife conservation
Raipur, 17 June 2020
In the meeting of Forest Department chaired by Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel at his residence office, several important decisions were taken in the larger interest of rural forest dwellers of the state. As per the decisions taken, Transport Permit Pass (TP Pass) will not longer be compulsory for transportation of minor forest produce in Chhattisgarh (except the nationalized forest produce), two ultramodern and well-equipped hospitals for treatment of wild animals, Forest Department will develop mobile app for controlling field teams. Decisions on various other issues were also taken in the meeting.
Decision to dissolve the mandate for Transport permit Pass will make it more convenient for the traders involved in transportation of minor forest produce in the state to take the stock from one place to another for sale. On the occasion, Forest Minister Mr. Mohammad Akbar, Home Minister Mr. Tamradhwaj Sahu and senior officials of the department were present.
In the meeting, Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel had detailed discussion with the department officials about wildlife conservation in state. Meanwhile, Mr. Baghel gave necessary guidelines for measures to be taken for wildlife conservation in the state and for monitoring of the same. Over past 10 years, the number of elephants and other wild animals in the state has increased. Officials informed that number of elephants in the state has increased from 225 to 290 over the period of last 10 years.
In the meeting, it was decided that a mobile app will be developed to control the field teams of forest department and to ensure their presence on the field. Using this app, all the officials and employees of forest department right from forest guard to higher officials will be monitored. This will help in taking immediate necessary steps for forest management and wildlife conservation. Likewise, Chief Minister Mr. Baghel gave instructions to constitute 10-member teams in all the affected forest divisions for constant monitoring of elephant herds and other wild animals. It was also decided in the meeting that payments will be done through forest management committees. Chief Minister praised the mobile-based alert system being used in Mahasamund Forest Division presently to control human-elephant conflict and decided to implement the same in 10 villages each of Dharamjaigarh and Surajpur.
In the meeting, Chief Minister gave instructions to upgrade the veterinary hospitals in Jungle Safari, Raipur and Kaanan Pendari, Bilaspur into ultramodern and well-equipped hospitals. Meanwhile, Forest Minister Mr. Akbar informed that presently, veterinary doctors are on contractual appointment in forest department. Many of these doctors move to other services even before becoming a specialist in treatment of wild animals. This makes it difficult to provide necessary treatment to the wild animals. On Forest Minister’s request, Chief Minister gave instruction to bring specialist doctors from Veterinary Department on deputation under Forest Department.Chief Minister gave instructions to appoint these specialists particularly in all the 20 forest divisions, where wildlife population is higher.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Subrat Sahu, Principal Secretary Forest Department Mr. Manoj Pingua, Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Siddhartha Komal Pardeshi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Mr. Rakesh Chaturvedi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Mr. Atul Shukla, Additional Chief Conservator of Forest Mr. Arun Pandey, CEO CAMPA Mr. V Shrinivasa Rao, Deputy Secretary of Chief Minister’s Secretariat Ms Saumya Chaurasiya and other officials.
