A Forester Remembers

I have just heard of the demise of Mr. B S Chauhan, the gentleman who was the DFO at Rajgarh when I joined there in February 1974. I have already mentioned how much in awe of him I was. He was a towering personality both literally and figuratively. Well over 6 feet in height and sporting an imposing moustache, Mr. Chauhan instilled ready respect amongst his juniors and subordinates and fear in minds of wrongdoers. His tours of inspection were awaited with dread by the field staff. Many a story was told of his long walks in the forests and his keen eye for detail. He had the nasty habit of stopping the jeep and getting off where he was least expected, hopping over the fence of the plantation, and then taking a tour of inspection, with the Range Officer and other staff trailing behind him. Needless to say, the area near the entry to the plantations was always well looked after with the grass and bushes kept in check and the saplings well looked after. The far corners of the plantati...

Immediately after completing my graduation, in 1970, I began preparing for competitive exams, and filled and submitted whatever forms I came across. I knew my parents had high expectations from me and I did not want to let them down. I would get through the written exams of Business Schools, but was always rejected by the Interview panels, as they considered me too young to be admitted. I was rejected by the Delhi University, the Banaras Hindu University, even IIM Calcutta, merely on the grounds of age and also, in case of   IIMC, as I was considered inexperienced! What chance did I have against IIT graduates, many of whom had even worked for some time after their graduation! As one can imagine, I was pretty much down in the dumps when I applied to the UPSC for the IFS exam. I had no idea what the Forest Service was – in fact no idea what forests were either! There was no ‘Google’ to guide me, and nobody in my father’s circle of colleagues and friends had any knowledge. All ...

The north-western Himalayas are home to two nomadic tribes, the 'Gaddis' and the 'Gujjars'. While the Gaddis are shepherds, rearing large herds of sheep, the Gujjars are cattle herders. Come April/May, members of both tribes can be seen wending their way, along with their sheep or buffaloes, as the case may be, towards the high pastures among the fir and spruce forests of the Himalaya. Their womenfolk trudge along with them, while children can be seen astride the little ponies that also carry their tents, beddings, pots and pans. They spend the entire summer months in the alpine pastures and, from October onwards, begin making their way back towards the lower hills or the plains, where they spend the winter months. The ‘Gujjars’ are hardy folk - the men, on an average, six feet tall, and the women a few inches less. The hooked noses and hennaed beards of the men, and their colourful turbans, make them easily distinguishable. Their foot wear is distinctive too – a p...

Being the junior-most officer on station, and still under training to boot, I was always being singled out for tasks that were either considered too menial, or too monotonous. One such duty entrusted to me was to carry out an inventory of the stores of the Division, an exercise that had not been conducted for over ten years, although it was mandatory to do so every year. A certificate was required to be recorded in the Stores Register that all the items listed therein had been checked and verified. This task was not only tiresome and boring, but also sometimes dangerous as the ‘Store’ was essentially a garage below the Range Office, with the doors allowing easy access to whatever creepy crawly wanted to make its home amongst the stored items. It was this Augean stable that my boss one day ordered me to inspect and clean up. Like Hercules, I too flinched at the thought of not only getting dirty and filthy, but also the prospect of getting stung and bitten by every type of creature t...

Rajgarh Forest Division was unique in the sense that it comprised all sorts of forests - Reserved, Demarcated Protected, Undemarcated Protected as well as Mushtirqua, Shamlat and Private. While the Reserved and Demarcated forests were delineated on the ground with boundary pillars, the other four  types had no boundaries marked on the ground, hence it was extremely difficult to say with surety where the private land ended and forest land began. The Survey of India maps, too, depicted only the Reserved and Demarcated forests, and not the other types. The only record we had of the boundaries were the Revenue maps, the custodians of which were the Patwaris of the Revenue Department. Since the Forest Department field staff had no knowledge of the boundaries of villages, it was quite easy for the unscrupulous timber mafia to surreptitiously fell the trees, and smuggle the valuable timber outside the state. Many a time the crooked timber contractors would obtain written consent of the v...