BHUBANESWAR : With two of its forest vertical heads retiring on Sunday which is an unusual coincidence, the State government has assigned additional charge of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF and Head of Forest Force (HoFF) to Jitendra Kumar. Kumar is a 1987 batch officer of PCCF rank. Similarly, Additional PCCF (Wildlife) Shashi Paul will remain in-charge of PCCF (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW). The Forest Department has issued a notification in this regard.
As per the notification, both Kumar and Paul will assume the new charge on Sunday. The move from the department came as the incumbent PCCF and HoFF Sandeep Tripathi and PCCF (Wildlife) HS Upadhyay are retiring on the same day. Tripathi, a 1984 batch IFS officer, had been appointed to the post of PCCF and HoFF on March 1, 2019 while Upadhyay, a 1985 batch IFS officer, assumed the charge as PCCF (Wildlife) and CWW on September 17, 2019.
The decision not to go for any full-fledged appointments to these posts is apparently taken since all the current four officers in PCCF rank will retire by May. Kumar will complete his tenure in May. Similarly, 1986 bath IFS officers M Maloth Mohan and Pravakar Behera as well as 1987 batch IFS officer Sudarsan Panda will be complete their service tenure in the same period. Additional charge of the PCCF (Wildlife) to Paul, a 1988 batch IFS officer, was natural as he holds experience of wildlife management and has been serving as the Additional PCCF (Wildlife) and Director of Nandankanan since February 2019.
It is only in May that the Government will have to weigh its options. There are three officers of 1987 batch who could land the top positions such as Rajeev Kumar, Sushil Kumar Popli and Sisir Kumar Ratho. Both Kumar and Poli are serving in the State while Ratho is ADG (Forest) with the Centre. Interestingly, Abhay Kant Pathak, another 1987 batch IFS officer could have been ahead in the race had he not found himself embroiled in corruption charges. He is behind the bars now.
Currently, there are sanctions for two cadre PCCF and as many ex cadre posts in the Department. With IFS cadre revision pending for over a decade and the top posts getting crowded, the Government had created two special posts last year to accommodate the officers getting promotion. Sources said, the State Government has finalized creation for two more PCCF posts which would take the cadre and ex cadre positions to three each.