COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu forest department has constructed retiring rooms exclusively for women staff deployed for fieldwork inside reserve forests. The retiring rooms will be put into use once the finishing touches are given to the facility.
Forest sources said 11 retiring rooms have been constructed at a cost of Rs 62 lakh for the welfare of the women staff in the division. A few have been constructed at Pattisalai near Gopanari in Periyanacikenpalayam forest range, near Sembukkarai tribal settlement
in Coimbatore forest range, and near the Mulli Checkpost at Karamadai forest range. A senior official of the division said we have allotted five to six lakh rupees for each retiring room attached with toilets. Their construction was necessary as the appointment of women personnel increased in the last couple of years
Women are appointed as forest guards, forest watchers and forest rangers. They attend to animal deaths, detecting poaching cases among other duties.
"Toilets were constructed already for the male staff, and the new retiring room will benefit the women staff. As per the norms, the division has ensured 30 percent of the jobs for the women in the 15 ranges, including territorial forest ranges, as against the total strength of 200 staff in the division," the official said.
Another forest official said that a retiring room in Pattisalai of Gopanari Reserve Forest is located more than 35 kilometers from the Periyanacikenpalayam Forest Office, and it will take close to one-and-a-half hours to reach the spot.
"The women staff will be assigned field visits to the surroundings of Pattisalai in case of the death of wild animals and to interact with the tribal people as part of the efforts to mitigate human-animal conflict. In such situations, the retiring rooms will be helpful to the women staff when they have to attend to nature's call. They can even take rest as the retiring room is equipped with a bed and power connection.
The forest department staff need to spend much time outdoors. For instance the postmortem procedure for a wild elephant takes a whole day.
"We have also constructed a similar retiring room facility for the women staff in the forest range office campus," the official added.