200 contract staff left jobless in Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project

CHENNAI : Around 200 people, who were employed on contract basis, were rendered jobless as Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project (TBGP), which was mooted eight years ago to increase tree cover outside forest areas, has come to a close and a proposal for project extension is pending with the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF). TBGP was being implemented from 2011-12 by the State government with loan assistance of  Rs 469.60 crore from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA). The project officially ended on March 31. The government has recently submitted a proposal seeking funds of over Rs 1,800 crore to extend the project.  

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Syed Muzammil Abbas, who recently took over as Chief Project Director of TBGP, said the employees were taken on contract for the project period. “Now, the project has ended as well as their contract.” To a query, the official said there was still the question of renewing their contract at this juncture since the approval for project extension was still pending with the Union Environment Ministry and JICA.  The staff on contract include technical assistants, junior research fellows, data entry operators, superintendents etc. 

Sources said they had reportedly sought appointment with Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan. Environment secretary Shambu Kallolikar told Express that the government was hopeful of getting approval for project extension and the contract employees, who lost their jobs, would be reconsidered.

Meanwhile, official records reveal that though the project required 532 staff, the forest department tried to manage work with half the strength. As on March 2017, 30 out of 68 posts (56 per cent) of Forest Range Officers and 148 out of 226 posts of Foresters (65 per cent) created exclusively for the implementation of the TBGP remained vacant resulting in incompletion of several works. 

Mired in controversies 

The overall implementation of the project itself was mired in controversies. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ended March 2017 has identified several failures. “Financial management failure of the government to sanction the agreed funds, non-utilisation of State share of Rs Rs 87.18 crore towards establishment charges, parking of government funds of Rs 49.35 crore outside the government account indicated imprudent financial management.

Selection of plantations based on beneficiary preference instead of field investigation for tree cultivation in private lands and failure to ensure survival of the planted saplings resulted in non-achievement of the green cover to an extent of 19,044 hectares,” the CAG report said. 

Inspection for records showed that the percentage of survival of plantations ranged between 46 per cent and 60 per cent during 2012-13 and 2013-14 which was below the survival rate of 70 per cent fixed. Also, 10.53 lakh seedlings planted under long rotation category in 18 Divisional Management Units were reported as zero per cent survival. The expenditure of Rs 2.14 crore incurred for raising nursery and plantation cost became infructuous.   

Vital project 

• In Tamil Nadu, the forest and tree cover is 21.76% (17.94% forest cover and 3.82% tree cover respectively).
• National forest policy mandates States to have one third of the land area under forest and tree cover.
• Per capita forest and tree cover in TN is 0.04 hectares compared with the national average of 0.08 hectares.
• This is attributed to the recent rapid economic and population growth as well as the limitation of land for plantations within the recorded forest area.
• Therefore, it is required to expand the plantation activities outside the recorded forest area.