77 Forest Guards Get Training At PAU

Ludhiana, April 1, 2016: A two-month basic training course for the forest guards of the Department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation, Punjab concluded at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). The Directorate of Extension Education in collaboration with the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, PAU organized the course. Newly recruited 77 forest guards attended this training course and this was the third training course, organized by PAU. In the earlier two training courses, 293 forest guards were trained. During the extensive training, various theoretical and practical aspects of forestry and allied fields were covered by subject matter experts of PAU as well as State Forest Department.

The Chief Guest, Dr P.S. Aulakh, Additional Director of Extension Education, encouraged the grass root level workers of forest department to work sincerely to protect the existing forests and plant new trees.

The Guest of Honour, Mr Surjit Singh Sahota, Divisional Forest Officer, Ludhiana, apprised the forest guards of their basic duties and responsibilities in the field. He further said that the job of forest guard was to protect living trees from damage or theft which were growing in open. He urged them to be vigilant around the clock and use the knowledge gained during this training programme.

Dr Avtar Singh, Technical Course Coordinator, said that during this training, trainees were informed about various aspects of silviculture, nursery production, plantation management techniques, seed technology, identification of important tree species and utilization of their products. In addition, topics dealing with accounts like preparation of muster roll, estimates for nursery work, damage report - procedures and maintenance of record, preparation of field books etc., were covered, he added. Topics dealing with wildlife such as wild life habitat management and its rescue, especially, snake rescue were practically demonstrated by experts, he told.

Dr RIS Gill, Head, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, talked about the importance of forestry in the present day scenario of climate change. To achieve the target of increasing forest area from the existing 6.5 to 15 per cent, more emphasis should be given to agro-forestry, he stressed. The scope of increasing forest area lies with the introduction of agro-forestry on farmers’ fields, he observed.

Dr T.S. Riar, Course Coordinator, while proposing the vote of thanks, said that the forest guards should improve their interaction with farmers and work in participatory mode to increase the area under forest and improve the health of forest trees.