BHUBANESWAR: With over 40 per cent beat guard posts, 58 per cent ranger and 35 per cent other field level posts are lying vacant in the Forest department. As per the statistics of the Forest and Environment department out of 5,376 sanctioned posts of forest guards, the first line protector of forests, a whopping 2,169 are lying vacant.
Large-scale vacancies in this post has become a challenge for the forest and wildlife officials in guarding the forest against poachers, smugglers, forest fire and other unauthorised activities.However, this is not the only issue. The department is also struggling with staff crunch in several other rank including forester, deputy ranger, forest ranger, assistant conservator of forest (ACF) and divisional forest officer (DFO).
As per the data, 325 out of a total 551 ranger posts are lying vacant in forest and wildlife divisions of the department prompting the department to handover charge of the post to their deputy at many places.
Over 100 deputy ranger posts, out of a total 282, are also vacant. On the other hand 478 out of 2,530 forester posts, 174 out of 341 ACF posts and 22 out 111 DFO posts are yet to be filled in the state.
Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Pradip Kumar Amat in his recent reply to a question in Assembly, informed that 5,272 out of 12,827 sanctioned posts of the department are lying vacant.
He, however, informed the Assembly that a total 8,238 persons have been engaged in the field level on contractual and outsourcing basis for forest and wildlife management in the state.The state government is spending around `142.13 crore in this regard, the minister said.