Career option in Forestry
Ranjan K Baruah *
Forests are one of the important natural resources. It provides ample opportunity for living being with food, livelihood and many more. When it comes to career, it is one of the important areas of study as conservation and management of natural resources like forest is very crucial and important. This subject has more scope in north eastern region and areas which have more forest covers.
Forestry is an important and interesting subject of study and from scientific perspectives it started in 1864 in India. B Sc Forestry was introduced since 1985 in the country and since then there are many institutes offering courses related to forestry. Trained and skilled personnel are needed to maintain and regenerate the forest cover, forest wealth and resources.
There are various courses available like graduate, postgraduate and diploma level, as well as at the Ph.D. level. Students willing to study courses related to forestry must be from science background with subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the senior secondary level. There are special courses at masters level related to same.
Some of the courses related to it are Certificate Course in Forest Management, B.Sc. Forestry, M.Sc. Forestry, Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management (PGDFM), etc. Those with Bachelors degree in related subjects can appear for Indian Forest Service exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission.
ICFRE: Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), an apex body in the national forestry research system, has been undertaking the holistic development of forestry research through need based planning, promoting, conducting and coordinating research, education and extension covering all aspects of forestry.
It has nine Regional Research Institutes and four Research Centres located in different bio-geographical regions of the country to cater the forestry research needs of the nation. The regional research Institutes are located at Jodhpur, Dehradun, Shimla, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Ranchi, Bangalore, Jorhat and Jabalpur and the centres are at Aizawl Agartala, Chhindwara and Allahabad.
IIFM: Indian Institute of Forest Management is a sectoral management institute, which constantly endeavors to evolve knowledge useful for the managers in the area of Forest, Environment and Natural Resources Management and allied sectors. It disseminates such knowledge in ways that promote its application by individuals and organizations. It is based in Bhopal.
Forestry course at NERIST: North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology is situated in Nirijuli near Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. The Department of Forestry under Applied Science Stream, since the establishment of NERIST has been developing its infrastructure facilities and imparting good Forestry Education in the form of Certificate and Degree Courses to the students of the North Eastern Region in particular and the country in general.
The Forestry course assumes greater significance as the North Eastern region which provides a rich biodiversity hot spot and it is required to be conserved and utilized on a sustainable basis. Forestry courses offered in NERIST shall help to generate human resources with better understanding of conservation aspects of Natural resources and sustainable utilization of their products.
There are various people who work in forest and wild life conservation. For example, foresters, dendrologists, ethologists, entomologists, silviculturists (forest propagation and culture), forest range officers, zoo curators, etc. Personnel attributes are also need to be successful in this field. One must be good in communication skills and must love nature and ready to work for the same in different situations.
A student from North Eastern region may try for courses in this areas as the region has a huge forest cover. It’s time to use forest in sustainable ways which means there are needs of more trained and skilled people. Governments have forest department where people may work after completing courses related to forestry. Qualified and trained people may also join different Non Governmental Organisation for conservation and similar activities.
* Ranjan K Baruah wrote this article for The Sangai Express
The writer can be reached at bkranjan(at)gmail(doT)com
This article was posted on October 29 2015.
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