Jayoti Banerjee, chief conservator of forests and field director of Melghat Tiger Reserve, writes about the nitty gritty of life as a forester, from handling the most advanced software to communicating with tribals still living in commune with nature.

One of the most memorable posting for an Indian Forest Service officer is that of Field Director in a tiger Reserve. Not just for the prestige and honour attached to this post but also for the vast learning opportunities it offers.

So, for me, the ‘flex’ became palpable, when on a fine summer day in the height of the second Covid wave of May 2021, I took charge as chief conservator of forests and field director of India’s first and one of the largest tiger reserves, the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

I was posted in the midst of an administrative turmoil, so it became all the more challenging. As I immersed myself more into my workspace, things felt better.
Most wilderness areas are exceptionally gifted by nature, overflowing with scenic beauty and wild life. Secretly, I feel, the gods had been extra partial while creating Melghat. There is a reason why it is called magical. It’s a trance-like, awe-inducing landscape: mountains covered with ancient forests, the oldest rivers, wild flowers, pulses, and a surplus of vibrant local tribal heritage. All interspersed with rich wildlife, rare endemic birds, spiders, medicinal plants, many of which are still waiting to be documented.

In short, the 3 Ts — tiger, teak and Tapi river — cradle the beauty of this landscape.

The nitty gritty of routine office workload, the sheer volume of data sets generated, the information that has to be sent to various agencies, the mandatory protocols that have to be followed strictly to run a tiger reserve may look onerous, but it is exactly the reason why the best of wildlife and old growth forests still survive in India. With a mere 2.4% of the global geographical area, teeming with16% of global human population and 37% livestock pressure, it is nothing short of a miracle.

The volume of quiet backdoor jobs and research in managing a tiger reserve is mind boggling. The APOs (Annual Plan of Operations) are prepared in sync with the TCPs (Tiger Conservation Plan of Core, Buffer, Corridor, Protection, Ecotourism) of that tiger reserve to execute all protection, habitat improvement and developmental works in an orderly phased manner.

Works taken up under various schemes: state plan, central schemes, CAMPA, Melghat Tiger Reserve Foundation, are planned and proposals submitted in meticulously documented files to government for approvals. Managing the huge workforce of an area as big as Goa (true: 3,608 sq km only) comprising frontline and ministerial staff is an art and tact in itself.

One such exciting and mandatory NTCA approved wildlife protection tool used in field protocol is M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status.) It is a foot patrolling GIS-based monitoring system app. Helps in insightful analysis and tracking of field movement of officials. All field staff is required to ‘WALK’ a minimum of 30km of their respective forest beats in under a week. Melghat Tiger Reserve has one of the best M-STrIPES foot patrolling records nationally. Since 2018, our green foot soldiers have traversed 30,55,221km across the length and breadth of Melghat Tiger Reserve. That is akin to travelling to the moon and back nine times over!

A basic instinct is to aspire. In Melghat too, this is visible specially in the younger lot. Still somehow, deep down they do not want to sever the connection with their roots. Maybe that is the reason Melghat Tiger Reserve has one of the best representation of local tribal populations in its workforce. Be it our forest guard, van majoor, forest camp and fire protection staff; for any and every project of Melghat Tiger Reserve, we completely depend and trust our local Korku brethren to see us through.

We try to assimilate components and totems of local heritage in building our permanent structures inside forests be it a protection camp, machans, office or even a simple inaugural slab. We too participate in treasuring the local culture of our landscape. This has brought us closer to the people and the relationship between the local communities and foresters are intricate, layered, and most times congenial; on a few rare occasions even confrontational.

We play multiple roles as foresters; primarily as protector of forests and wildlife. Also as livelihood generator or facilitator of local community progress. A few times as an agony aunt too, to resolve peoples’ grievances and hurts.

The nature of our job is such that, especially in law and order situation, we are forced to take action against certain individuals from the community to uphold the law of the land. It helps that many of our law enforcing officers are recruits from the same community as well.

On a personal level, I have also tried to reach out to the larger community which may have never seen a forest or forester. Primarily through Twitter, which has been my only foray into social media and public outreach. Tweeting intelligently is a valued skill. To put succinctly in 280 character, with the help of inspiring visuals from the field, our thoughts cogently enough, for people to appreciate our forests.

We are accessible 24/7 on public interfaces like SM. It is overwhelming. I realized its true potential when many times got valuable inputs, accurate intelligence and alerts through direct messages from members of public.

One moot question: How many of us are on social media to connect with the influencer community? Since foresters work in mostly remote areas, our work lives remain a mystery to many.

Our aim is to communicate the nature of our work, forests and wildlife. So that it catches many more eyes to trigger imagination. Especially in the young.