Environmental protection and conservation are vital requirements in the present times, said the Forest Research Institute acting director Arti Chaudhary. She was speaking at a day long workshop on potential of forestry technology in employment generation of youth organised by the Extension division of FRI here on Thursday. The workshop was held for the students of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) with a total of 95 students including 50 from Uttarakhand and 45 from Karnataka state participating in it.
After inaugurating the workshop, Chaudhary said that the institute is a pioneer institute in the field of forestry research and education in south east Asia. She said that environmental protection and conservation are vital needs of today. The technologies developed by the institute are eco-friendly and have a potential of generating employment and making people self dependent. The youth will certainly be capable to motivate the society after getting technical knowledge from this institute, she opined.
The FRI Extension division head AK Pandey welcomed the gathering and gave a brief account on the workshop. He spoke of some important technologies developed by the institute like hand paper making, natural dyes, utilisation of forest biomass, mushroom cultivation, bamboo preservation and processing, solar kiln for wood drying, planting stock improvement, cultivation and sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants. He said that these youth will form a linkage between institute and stakeholders.
The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan state director Balvinder Singh Khosa said that the students had earlier gathered to share the mutual culture of Uttarakhand and Karnataka and in FRI they would certainly come to know about new technologies, which is a need of today for students. Other scientists of the institute also informed the students about technological aspects developed at FRI.