MADHYA PRADESH : Aclutch of forest beat guards, the frontline personnel of the forest department responsible for protection, conservation, and management of forest areas, are chronicling the green and wild wealth of Madhya Pradesh, armed with curiosity and cameras.
Using personal mobile phones and official cameras issued to forest ranges, these guards are photographing rare and endangered plants and animals and recording details that are now being published as books by the department. The effort has begun to draw interest from university researchers, who see the collections as valuable documentation of forests that remain poorly studied.
For Jagdish Prasad Ahirwar, the first four months of 2025 became unforgettable. The 52-year-old Chhatarpur resident joined the forest department 18 years ago and has long nurtured a fascination for medicinal plants and their traditional uses. Posted as a beat guard in the Mohandra forest range of Panna district, Ahirwar spent January to March trekking through dense forest patches, clicking photographs with his cellphone, and carefully noting details in a personal diary.
By March, he had identified and documented 129 medicinal plant varieties. “I have always believed the forest itself is a living pharmacy,” Ahirwar said. “If people understand the value of these plants, they will protect them.”
Ahirwar’s photographs and handwritten descriptions were later compiled into a book by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department’s South Panna forest division. Titled ‘Important Medicinal Plants of South Panna Division,’ the publication is used by forest staff to educate locals and has also reached researchers interested in ethnobotany and plant sciences.
Among the species documented is Vidarikand (Pueraria tuberosa), whose tubers are used in traditional medicine to manage chest pain, rheumatism, and chronic fever.
The plant is also valued as an immunity booster, restorative tonic, lactation enhancer, and for improving semen quality. Another inclusion is the dahmian plant (Cordia macleodii), known in folk medicine for therapeutic properties, including potential anti-cancer activity.
A younger colleague in the same division has turned his lens skyward. Virendra Patel, 27, currently posted in the Kalda forest range, has spent the last two years photographing birds using the department’s official camera. Patel documented 97 bird species during 2024–25.
His collection includes three critically endangered species, one endangered species, one vulnerable species, and three near-threatened species.
The South Panna Division compiled Patel’s images and notes into a second book, complementing Ahirwar’s work. “The pictures and associated detailed information about the medicinal plant and bird species, which have been compiled in two books by the South Panna Division in 2025, not just showcase the plant and avian diversity of the forests in the division, but also are key indicators about the state’s environmental health in the same forests,” divisional forest officer Anupam Sharma said. South Panna is not alone in this grassroots documentation movement. About 450 kilometres away, beat guards in the Pench Tiger Reserve–National Park have carried out similar exercises.
A book on butterfly species, released on July 29 last year, included various colourful varieties. In November 2024, the reserve released a booklet on wild mushrooms after identifying 44 varieties. “The macro morphological study of the mushrooms helped us identify and document 44 wild mushroom varieties,” said Pench Tiger Reserve deputy director Rajnish Kumar Singh. He said the work is continuing.