785 youths recruited as forest foot soldiers in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Forests spread over 26,345 sqkm in the state will get a better protection with the recruitment of young forest guards. A total of 785 forest guards received their appointment orders on Monday. The selected guards have been posted in various districts across the state.

A senior forest official said at present those working as guards are at the verge of their retirement. These people cannot perambulate the inaccessible areas. The watchers and guards are the main forest foot soldiers, who played a key role in protecting the natural resources. Now with the appointment of youngsters as forest guards, the protection for the forests in the state will get a fillip, the officer said.

Another official said many engineering graduates and post-graduates too have applied for the post. The department received more than 3.5 lakh applications for the post. The department uploaded over 2.1 lakh admit cards online. It is for the first time that an online test of such a magnitude was conducted by any recruiting agency, he said.

The duties of the guards include conservation of forests and wildlife, providing protection to greening efforts, helping in reducing man-animal conflict, preventing tree felling and poaching activities by regular perambulation besides prevention and control of forest fires.

"The forest department has opened its doors to the third gender for recruitment as uniformed staff in the department. This again is another first in the department’s efforts. The tests for the recruitment were totally online, using no paper. Using computers has helped in reducing use of 3 crore A4 sheets, which in turn saved more than 5,000 trees. Hence the department has called it a ‘Greeen Recruitment’" the officer added.