VIJAYAWADA: By January 2020, notification for all vacant posts in the forest department would be given, said N Prateep Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator of the department to the media on Tuesday.
He said, after bringing the issue of staff shortage to the notice of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in a recent meeting, he has given a nod for the recruitment of about 2,000 vacant posts.
Prateep Kumar further said that the forest cover in the State has been steadily increasing with 2,141 square km of forest cover been increased. For this, it also ranked first in the country as per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR 2015-2017).
“The biggest challenge in front of us is a shortage of staff, as a single person is doing the work of three people. Upon bringing this to the notice of the Chief Minister, he readily agreed to fill all the vacant posts in the next few months. The sanctioned employee strength is 4,915 and currently, only 2,158 staff are working with 2,757 posts left vacant. Of them, 504 were notified by the APPSC and remaining 2,253 vacancies are soon going to be notified,” said the forest department chief.
Prateep Kumar further stated that they have developed an action plan for 2019-20, based on requirements and challenges.
Plan to save red sanders
Total Forest cover in State: 37,258 square km
Total area of Red Sanders: 5.83 lakh hectares
No of red sanders smuggling cases registered in 2018-19: 702
No of red sanders smuggling cases registered since 2002: 15,660
No of red sanders seized during 2018-19: 266.36 tonnes
No of red sanders seized from 2002: 14,412.12 tonnes
No of red sanders sold in 2018-19: 1097.636 metric tonnes
No of red sanders available for sale: 318.15 metric tonnes