IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Overworked and underpaid, India''s forest guards battle despair.
The strict vigil of forest guards at the Ranthambore National Park has considerably reduced the number of poaching cases and has also kept trespassers who destroy forests at bay. Kedar Khan, a 54-year-old forest guard, pours out the plight of such men whose passion for conserving the wildlife is slowly diminishing…
My name is Kedar Jat. I am a forest guard and have been one for the past 27 years. Ranthambore is like my motherland and since childhood we have been taught to protect its extensive wildlife. The passion of learning about the wildlife that I have been living with made me complete an MA degree in Zoology. The education gave me better knowledge and understanding of animals, which made my will to conserve wildlife even stronger. The happiest day of my life was when I was employed as a forest guard in Ranthambore, a National Park that is so close to my heart. But I hadn’t anticipated that this job would one day leave me in distress.
I am 54 now and still have to be on vigil for 24 hours. There is no rotation or shift system of guards because there are hardly any forest guards. The forest department is highly understaffed due to which we have to overstretch our work hours and be on guard all the time. There has been no increment in our salary for many years. We are paid only Rs 9000 per month, which is hardly anything to run a family with kids. Now and then, we are told that something will be done, but those are just words. Moreover, even in a 24-hour job, we hardly get to fill our stomach. All we eat is roti and onions. There is no mess for people like us in the offices. Since we live in the jungle, we have to walk for about 20 kms even to get salt and due to old age, it's very tough on our body.
The most demoralising aspect is that we haven’t been promoted, ever! Although we would do anything to safeguard the wildlife, but appreciation is what drives us. And that is totally missing. Many forest guards have lost their lives to protect the animals from intruders and poachers. I once had a tussle with the Mogias and was also shot by one. Once I was surrounded by this huge group of woodcutters, about 30-40 of them, and was badly beaten up by them. Had such incidents happened with police officers, they would have been quickly promoted. They would have got a quarter from the department and good money to run their household and to send children to good schools. We are deprived of all these facilities. There have been times when we have had to chase the poachers and other intruders for several kilometres. It's a tough job. Just an appreciation, by at least providing us with basic facilities like education for children and a good home to live, would give us the motivation to work. There are only about 48 forest guards in Rajasthan and there are no more candidates for this job. We are the best-trained guards in India and would like to pass on this training to others also but unfortunately there’s no one.
All we want is protection of our animals and our beautiful wildlife, but in return at least give us some benefit. There are ex-military men working with us and there are conflicts that have been happening for years. Being from a higher rank, they always dominate over us, though they know that we know more about this profession and about Ranthambore. All these factors have highly demotivated us, to such an extent that now I can’t think of asking my children to continue this work. When there is no benefit at all for us, why should we get our children involved in something like this? Ranthambore has given back life to Sariska. We don’t want to relax. We want to work. But what motivation do we have to work? We are stressed out and frustrated and we also don’t see people coming in for this job. It’s a sad truth that those who really want to work for protecting our wildlife are not given any kind of incentive to keep this passion burning in us.
Spriha Srivastava
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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Overworked and underpaid, India''s forest guards battle despair.
The strict vigil of forest guards at the Ranthambore National Park has considerably reduced the number of poaching cases and has also kept trespassers who destroy forests at bay. Kedar Khan, a 54-year-old forest guard, pours out the plight of such men whose passion for conserving the wildlife is slowly diminishing…My name is Kedar Jat. I am a forest guard and have been one for the past 27 years. Ranthambore is like my motherland and since childhood we have been taught to protect its extensive wildlife. The passion of learning about the wildlife that I have been living with made me complete an MA degree in Zoology. The education gave me better knowledge and understanding of animals, which made my will to conserve wildlife even stronger. The happiest day of my life was when I was employed as a forest guard in Ranthambore, a National Park that is so close to my heart. But I hadn’t anticipated that this job would one day leave me in distress.
I am 54 now and still have to be on vigil for 24 hours. There is no rotation or shift system of guards because there are hardly any forest guards. The forest department is highly understaffed due to which we have to overstretch our work hours and be on guard all the time. There has been no increment in our salary for many years. We are paid only Rs 9000 per month, which is hardly anything to run a family with kids. Now and then, we are told that something will be done, but those are just words. Moreover, even in a 24-hour job, we hardly get to fill our stomach. All we eat is roti and onions. There is no mess for people like us in the offices. Since we live in the jungle, we have to walk for about 20 kms even to get salt and due to old age, it's very tough on our body.
The most demoralising aspect is that we haven’t been promoted, ever! Although we would do anything to safeguard the wildlife, but appreciation is what drives us. And that is totally missing. Many forest guards have lost their lives to protect the animals from intruders and poachers. I once had a tussle with the Mogias and was also shot by one. Once I was surrounded by this huge group of woodcutters, about 30-40 of them, and was badly beaten up by them. Had such incidents happened with police officers, they would have been quickly promoted. They would have got a quarter from the department and good money to run their household and to send children to good schools. We are deprived of all these facilities. There have been times when we have had to chase the poachers and other intruders for several kilometres. It's a tough job. Just an appreciation, by at least providing us with basic facilities like education for children and a good home to live, would give us the motivation to work. There are only about 48 forest guards in Rajasthan and there are no more candidates for this job. We are the best-trained guards in India and would like to pass on this training to others also but unfortunately there’s no one.
All we want is protection of our animals and our beautiful wildlife, but in return at least give us some benefit. There are ex-military men working with us and there are conflicts that have been happening for years. Being from a higher rank, they always dominate over us, though they know that we know more about this profession and about Ranthambore. All these factors have highly demotivated us, to such an extent that now I can’t think of asking my children to continue this work. When there is no benefit at all for us, why should we get our children involved in something like this? Ranthambore has given back life to Sariska. We don’t want to relax. We want to work. But what motivation do we have to work? We are stressed out and frustrated and we also don’t see people coming in for this job. It’s a sad truth that those who really want to work for protecting our wildlife are not given any kind of incentive to keep this passion burning in us.
Spriha Srivastava
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
» IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
