Friday, 19 November 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Uttarakhand Forest department has issued appointment orders for 999 forest guards, who were selected and recommended by the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (USSSC) after a rigorous process of selection including written examination, physical fitness, 25 kilometre race and verification of documents. The total requisition was sent for 1,218 posts out of which the first list of 999 forest guards was recommended by UKSSSC. The recommendation of the remaining candidates is under process pending verification of documents and is expected to be received soon. According to the department, the newly appointed forest guards have been given time till December 15 to join in their respective designated divisions. After completing the joining formalities they would participate in a two-week orientation programme in which they would be exposed to the various aspects of their tasks. The recruits would be on probation for a period of two years during which they would be expected to complete a six-month training programme at the designated training institutes.
The new 999 forest guards include 331 lady forest guards. The maximum number of candidates is from Dehradun district while Bageshwar and Rudraprayag have the least number of candidates.
Earlier this year, the department had also promoted 99 class IV employees as forest guards who had secured the eligibility qualifications. Hence the addition of forest guards is expected to provide a boost to better forest protection, conservation, wildlife conservation and especially increase the work force for forest fire prevention in the coming summer. It would also enable better management of Van Panchayats as the forest guards are ex-officio secretaries of the Van Panchayat committees. Presently there was only one forest guard for every 10 Van Panchayats which would now increase to one forest guard for every five Van Panchayats. The total number of lady forest guards presently is 145 out of total 1,378 working (10.5 per cent) which would increase to 476 out of 2,377 (20 per cent) after the present recruitment.
