Environment Minister exhorts forest officers to be sincere

Delivering the inaugural address at the Induction Training Programme for 2016-2018 Batch officers of Indian Forest Service at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on Saturday, the Minister also indicated that efforts should be made towards making all the activities digitized.

Later, during his visit to Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), the Minister said that focus should be on research, through which livelihood and economic status of the people living around the forest area is enhanced and people get motivated to grow more trees outside forests to increase the C-mitigation potential of the area.

A presentation highlighting the achievements and future roadmap of the council was made by Director General (Research), ICFRE, Dr. G. S. Goraya, Deputy and Director General, ICFRE, Dr Shashi Kumar in the Board Room of FRI.

He also visited museums that displayed forest products, non-wood forest products and entomology museums of FRI and its Xylarium, which is an international, scientific collection of woods. Director, FRI Dr. Savita, along with heads of division of forest products, NWFP and entomology explained the various exhibits kept in these Museums.

The Minister expressed happiness and satisfaction on the status of upkeep of museums.

He was impressed with the collection of specimens and specially the massive collection of wood blocks of timber species native to various countries. However, he stressed the need to make theses museums more interactive to make the visitors learn more about this precious collection and its significance in the promotion of forestry science.