By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 4 Nov: An online training programme for senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers has concluded successfully at UPES. The weeklong event on the theme of “Environmental Law, Policy & Governance in India: National and International Perspectives” was conducted by the UPES ‘School of Law’ (SOL) from 26 October onwards. Bharat Jyoti, Director, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun, inaugurated the programme virtually.
Addressing the participants, Bharat Jyoti said, “The tribal needs must be kept in the forefront while starting any new project in a tribal area, as they are dependent on forests for their sustenance or else their displacement under development projects may lead to a loss of their culture.” Dean, SOL, Dr VK Singh revealed that it’s compulsory for members of All India Services to attend a one-week training programme for upgradation of their knowledge and skills. “The Government of India identifies potential institutions for imparting training to the members of All India Services. UPES School of Law was selected to host this training for the senior IFS Officers making it one of the 40 institutions imparting such training to civil services members,” Dr Singh disclosed.
A former member of the Indian Forest Service (AGMUT-1983), himself, Prof GN Sinha from SOL steered the online event as the ‘Programme Chair’. “There have been quite a few developments in the area of environmental policymaking in recent years. Fresh horizons of interpretation have emerged in the growing environmental jurisprudence in the country. New regulations are being added to the legal system, seeking ways and means to meet the challenges to protect and preserve the environment. New frontiers of knowledge acquired by members of service through such trainings equip them well to perform the daunting tasks of governance in their respective professions,” Prof Sinha revealed.
‘Programme Vice Chair’ Aparajita Singh added that the pool of resource persons for the event were drawn from various disciplines – the Judiciary, Indian Forest Service, Indian Police Service, academicians from prestigious institutions, Supreme Court Lawyers, Independent Professionals along with in-house UPES faculty. Notable among those included Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Chairperson, National Green Tribunal; BS Sajwan, former Member NGT; Dr Promode Kant, Director, Institute of Green Economy; Tilotama Varma, Additional Director, National Wildlife Crime Control Bureau; AK Jain, Principal Consultant NITI Ayog; Hukum Singh Meena, Joint Secretary, Department of Land Resources; RK Upadhyay, IFS (Retd); Dr MK. Ramesh, Professor, NLU Bangalore; Dr Shobhalata Udapudi – Professor of Law, GNLU; Sanjay Upadhyay – Lawyer, Supreme Court; Sakarama Somayaji – Independent Professional; Nidhi Srivastava – Law & Policy Consultant; CA Reddy, former Secretary, NBA; and PC Tyagi, Faculty Member, Wild Life Institute.
The role of the NGT in Environmental Governance, Jurisprudence of early Forest Laws, Evolving International Climate Law, India’s International Climate Obligations, Wildlife Crime & Lacunae in Wildlife Act, Acquisition of Forestlands, Sustainable Development & International Law, Role of Civil & Criminal Justice System in Forestry, Climate Change & Politics of Environment, TRIPS, IPR and many more featured among the themes of the programme. Prof Sinha praised students Chiraiya Saruparia and Anish Yadav, Members of the Coordination Committee, and Ajay Narwal, Krishnendu Ghosh, Rajat Shah, Abhishant Kumar, Harshita Bhala, Shivika Gupta and Zoheb Khan for designing the Resource Booklet. “The program owes its success to the contributions by Aparajita and the ‘Assistant Programme Chairs’ Vaishali Singh, Mehreen Manzor and Dr Anju Pandey and the student support team,” he stated.
