By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 7 Mar: Forest Ecology and Climate Change Division, FRI, is holding a one-week compulsory training course on ‘Management of Forests for Water Quality Improvement’ for officers of the Indian Forest Service.
The purpose of this training course is to develop an understanding of the issues related to forest hydrology and to develop management plans and policies for improving water quality through forestry interventions. The training course is being attended by 17 IFS officers of the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Utter Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Odisha and New Delhi.
The training started with a welcome address by Dr VP Panwar, Head, Forest Ecology & Climate Change Division. Thereafter, the Director, FRI, and DG, ICFRE, Arun Singh Rawat, in his inaugural address, expressed his views on importance of Forests and their hydrological services. He introduced the participants to the hydrological studies conducted and Ganga and Yamuna River Detailed Project Report prepared by FRI suggesting forestry interventions to conserve the soil and water to improve the sustainable water flow in these rivers. He familiarised the participants to the training programme structure which includes theoretical and field visits to learn sediment load and water yield of the watershed in hydrological field station at Kempty watershed. He described the need to study forest hydrology which is associated with forest regulating services. He highlighted the study conducted by Dr. Rajiv Tiwari on the hydrological services of healthy and degraded Quercus forests in Uttarakhand.
All Heads of Division, IFS Officers, senior scientists, Dean, FRI Deemed to be University, Registrar, FRI, Technical Staff of the Institute attended the inaugural session. The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Parmanand Kumar, Course Coordinator of the training.
The training programme will go on for one week in which around sixteen eminent resource persons will be sharing their experiences and knowledge on water quality improvement through forestry intervention. A field tour is arranged to Kempty watershed in Mussoorie Forest Division to acquaint the participants with interventions undertaken by Forest Research Institute and to Shastradhara to show rehabilitated area by ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Dehradun.
