The systematic development of forestry education and training in India is, perhaps, one of the oldest in the world. After the appointment of Dr. Dietrich Brandis, as the first inspector General of Forests of India, there was steady progress towards scientific management of forests. Dr. Brandis recognized the need for qualified and well trained personnel for forestry Management and administration in the country and took steps for their recruitment and training. By 1870, the foundation of a forest department was well laid and a regular forests service came into existence.

Background

Initially from 1867 till 1926, the officers of the Imperial Forest Service were trained in France, Germany and United Kingdom. In India, this training began in 1878. A small Central Forest School at Dehradun was established by the then North-Western Province for training of Forest Range Officers (FROs), which was later taken over by the Government during 1884. Realizing the increasing demand of trained personnel, a proposal was made during 1891 for starting a Provincial Forest Service (PFS). After its establishment in 1906, the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, started one year course recruitment to PFS. Later in 1912, a separate two years’ course was started for training science graduates for appointment to the PFS. During 1926 training for Imperial Forest Service commenced at Indian Forest College (IFC), Dehradun and the course for PFS was abolished.

After the promulgation of the Government of India Act of 1935, the subject of ‘forest’ was transferred to the provinces and princely states and the Imperial Forest Service was replaced by the Superior Forest Service (SFS). The level of training was upgraded in 1940 and it was kept similar to the imperial Forest Service Officers, with an all India outlook to manage these national assets. The course was termed as the Superior Forest Service course which offered a Diploma in “Associate of India Forests College (AIFC)”. In order to cope up with increasing demand from the states for training the SFS officers, three SFS Colleges were established at Burnihat, Coimbatore and Dehradun during the period from 1976 to 1981.

In order to maintain high standards in forestry administration and management and to provide senior personnel to man all posts carrying higher duties and responsibilities, the Indian Forest Service (IFS) was created on 1st July 1966, as an All India Service under the All Indian Services Act, 1951. The Government, upgraded the IFC to the level of a national academy in May 1987. It is known as Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun.

The cadre of Forest Range Officers (FROs) was evolved out of the need to have a link between IFS officers at the higher administrative level and the lower subordinate filed staff. To meet the high demand for rangers, nine Forest Rangers Colleges (FRCs) were established from 1912 to 1982. Over the years, the cadre of FROs emerged as one of the most important executive functionaries in the State Forests Department (SFDs).Over the years the Central Government run Ranger colleges were gradually closed and handed over to the respective State Governments where they were located except the one at Kurseong which is still with the Central Government.

The Forestry Personnel’s Training is guided, overall by the National Training Policy, 1996 through a three tier approach to include all administrative levels from the lowest to the highest level that “Interface” with the public at large. The salient recommendations of the policy include identification of organizational training needs through in-house exercises, participatory training programme, action based training methods which are custom made, interaction among faculty, visits, in-service training at the cutting-edge levels, up-gradation of knowledge and skill of the trainers, need based overseas training.

The training of the Forestry Personnel is organised in such a way that, they get initial i.e. “Induction” training as well as refresher trainings - “In-service trainings”. These trainings are mostly handled by the Government for the top three levels of Forestry Personnel i.e. Indian Forest Service (IFS) Officers, State Forest Service (SFS) Officers and Range Forest Officers (RFOs). For the Balance of the Forestry Personnel i.e. Deputy Rangers, Forester and Forest Guards, the Induction as well as In-service trainings are taken care of by respective State/UT Governments.

Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy at Dehradun is mandated to conduct Professional training courses for IFS officers. The State Forest Service (SFS) for which recruitment is made by respective States is the second front line service of forest administration in the States. Mandate for imparting induction training to the SFS officers is given to the Directorate of Forests Education (DFE), Dehradun to maintain uniform standards of training in the country. These SFS trainings are imparted by DFE through its three SFS colleges at Burnihat, Dehradun and Coimbatore. The training of the Range Forest Officers is also conducted by DFE utilising the SFS College’s infrastructure as well as at Eastern Forest Rangers College (EFRC), Kurseong.

The inductions as well as in-service training of the frontline staff (deputy range officers, forester and forest guards) are the responsibility of the State/UTs concerned. There are 63 State Training Institutes /Colleges/Schools in the entire country.

As an attempt to improve the training infrastructure and training methodologies in the country, the project titled “Capacity Development for Forest Management and Training of Personal” is to be implemented in a project mode. The thrust of the project will be to strengthen the infrastructure of the Forestry Training School of State Forest departments and to strengthen the training modules of the frontline forestry personnel trainings.

The Academy is again in the process of renovation with advanced scientific and technological developments. Based on the findings of the study and input of national and regional level meetings a concept paper was revised to incorporate the comments of the Planning Commission. The concept is funding, through Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), to the External DoNER Agencies. The Ministry is in the advance stages of starting a Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) funded project for the sector.

The “Capacity Building in Forestry Sector” scheme will cover the whole gamut of the Forestry Sector Training needs and attempts to address the HRD needs at all levels of the forestry administration. This will be in addition to the components “Training of Personnel of other services” and “Training of other stakeholders”. It aims to acquaint the members of the civil society and the non-forestry service who have an interface with the forestry sector, to the realities, needs and challenges of the forestry & wildlife sector.