Kerala: Range officers' 'No' to tests

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Forest Department has decided to pull up range officers for their seeming reluctance to clear the mandatory departmental test. Range officers, on the other hand, feel that they are too overburdened to think of even their families, leave alone departmental tests.  “The state government has expressed concern that range forest officers are not acquiring departmental test qualification within the period of probation,” a top Forest Department official said. “The government has viewed the laxity shown in acquiring the test qualification seriously and wants the tendency nipped so as to improve the efficiency of the department,” it added.

But even senior forest officials are of the opinion that the requirement of a test will hamper the efficiency of young field officers. “Range officers are the backbone of a severely short-staffed Forest Department. They are already saddled with too much work that there are complaints that some of them are unable to visit their families even,” the official said. A range officer will be in charge of 90-200 sq km of forest area. They will have five foresters and 20 guards under them. This means that a single sector of the range will have nothing more than two guards and a forester. A range officer is given limitless responsibilities, most of which are risky: forest protection, wildlife conservation, eco-development activities, eviction of encroachment, fire protection, tribal welfare and other extension activities and legal work related to land issues.

“Instead of preparing for tests, I’ll think of setting right two land cases. It is no secret that it is difficult for range officers to meet our families for days on end,” a range officer said. However, the forest minister’s office has taken the stand that range officers will have to abide by certain departmental guidelines if they were to move up the ladder. “The argument is that everyone in government service goes through such tests to earn their promotions, and forest officials cannot be an exception,” the top Forest Department official said.