HYDERABAD: The Telangana Forest Department has been at the forefront of using remote sensing technology to detect forest fires. However, as per their own admission, the department’s efficiency in engaging with the local community in the prevention of forest fires is ‘very poor’.
An efficient method to reduce the chances of a forest fire would be to engage with the forest community. “It is necessary that the people dependent on the collection of non-timber forest produce from forests, their innocent endeavours often catapulting into wildfires, are made stakeholders in fighting forest fires as well,” points out Imran Siddiqui of Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society.
And apparently, about 50 per cent of the officers in the Telangana forest department think in the same lines as well, according to a survey conducted by the World Bank. This survey, a part of the World Bank report on forest fires in India, attempts to study the efficiency of the forest departments in engaging with the local community from the horse’s mouth.
In this regard, 29 per cent of the State’s officers who took part in the World Bank’s survey rated the Telangana Forest Department as ‘very poor’, 14 per cent rated it as ‘poor’ and 29 per cent rated it as ‘somewhat poor’. Only a meagre 14 per cent each rated it as ‘somewhat good’ and ‘very good’.