The students of College of Forestry, Sirsi, boycotted their classes and sat in dharna demanding more than 75 per cent reservations in RFOs and ACFs recruitment on Monday, April 11. The students of College of Forestry in the state are in a limbo as the government recently announced that it will reduce the number of recruitments for the Range Forest Officers and Assistant Conservator of Forests from the Forestry College background to fill up from other degree categories.
Sanjay Lamani, a student told TNIE, "We had a shock when the Minister, during the assembly session, announced that the recruitment will be cut down. We will have nowhere to go because we cannot go to any other departments like fisheries and agriculture because they have their own experts there."
Purushottam Patil, another student pointed out, "The Karnataka Forestry Colleges in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada and Ponnampet in Kodagu have about 500 students together and have been selected via CET. This course was most sought after by students, not just because we will get a job after studies, but due to our passion. The CET cut off rate is as high as 90 per cent. Many students have given up their MBBS seats to work amidst nature."
Sriram Hegde, another student said, "The students here are taught forestry, plantation, assisting in flora and fauna census and other aspects required for conservation. The course being for four years after PU, the students here will be entitled with a degree only when they work on field with the forest staff to get first-hand experience. We will be attached to the local forest staff where we spend walking on identification of forest species and learning about conservation practices like line transect in tiger census. Normally, the department when it recruits new candidates they will put them for training for two years. However, since we are attached with the forest department for one year, we will learn it as a part of our degree course."
Though the National Forest Policy formulated in 1988 states that preference should be given to students of Forestry College while recruiting officials, the government for reasons unknown decided to bend the norms for new recruitments who can be any candidate with a BSc and an MSc background. Ironically, the students who agitated against the low percentage of recruitment, earlier ensured 75 per cent recruitment by means of struggle are now losing their ground. Interestingly taking a cue from the earlier student struggle, nearly 50 per cent of the 30 forestry colleges across the country have ensured 100 per cent reservation for themselves.
Forest Minister Umesh Katti, replying to a question by Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar under rule-73 said, "100 per cent reservations for Forestry College students is not possible. There are many who have hardly scored 35 per cent marks have been recruited for forest management, while those who have scored over 90 per cent from other regular science and engineering backgrounds have been rejected. Since there is a need for effective management of forest, we have decided not to allow more reservations."
