Van Durga awards inspire women foresters

Nagpur: Even as the Women’s Reservation Bill that seeks to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women has been stuck, women should get 33% reservation in jobs, said Shree Bhagwan, vice-chairman, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), Nagpur.
Bhagwan was speaking at a function organized to present the Van Durga Awards-2022 instituted by Deepali Atul Deokar’s NGO Exploring Womanhood Foundation (EWF) on Sunday.
“In 1999, while working in the forest department in Chandrapur, I pushed for 30% of appointments for women. This did not augur well with my seniors, but I’m happy that today one of the Van Durga awardees is a woman whom I had appointed,” Bhagwan recalled.
EWF’s Van Durga awards are presented to outstanding women for wildlife and forest protection and conservation. One of the awards is also given to the spouse of a forest officer who offered distinguished service to the department during his entire career. Seema Kishor Mishrikotkar was awarded in this category.
Kishor Mishrikotkar, a known face in the department who retired as a DFO, was responsible for the crackdown on poachers and illicit fishing in Pench. He seized several tiger skins and performed many wildlife rescue operations including the one at Katlabodi where a tigress fell into an empty well. He was the one who raided a canteen in an assembly where quail and partridges were served.
“Nothing is more rewarding to me than my spouse who has been honoured. She has been effectively handling home affairs whenever I was in the field attending to the call of duty,” said Mishrikotkar.
The Van Durga awardees included RFO Swati Maheshkar, who during her postings at Chandrapur, Bhadravati and Ballarshah, fought encroachers and wildlife criminals, besides handling man-animal conflict and rescue operations.
The other two women awardees included round officer Shobha Wakchoure, Sinnar (Nashik), and forest guard Rujita Shelar (Hingoli). “The forest is an open treasure trove and to protect it is not an easy job. Yet, women foresters have proved that forestry work is no more a male bastion. We should realize that it’s time to pay back what we take from nature,” said Wakchoure.
Forest guard Shelar effectively implemented the Jalyukt Shivar scheme in a 350-hectare area. She removed encroachments on 90 hectares of forest and arrested many sandalwood smugglers. She also rescued several animals and rehabilitated them in the wild. “Van Durga awards inspire us to do good work,” she said.
The event also marked the presentation of an award by Pench field director A Sreelaxmi to women SHG ‘Pride of Pench’ from Pipariya and Sillari. Retired APCCF SS Mishra, ex-CCF Ravi Wankhede, DyCFs Nandkishore Kale, DFO Shatanik Bhagwat, senior chartered accountant TS Rawal, and several others graced the function.