NAGPUR: The normal administrative functioning of Maharashtra Social Forestry Department (SFD) has gone for a toss with over 80% of the posts of divisional forest officers (DFOs) lying vacant for the last two years.
There is no forest minister in place, putting decision-making in abeyance and senior forest officers are not taking initiative. Of the 109 sanctioned posts of DFOs, 82 have not been filled. Files related to the promotion of range forest officers (RFOs) to assistant conservators (ACFs) and ACFs to DFOs are gathering dust.
The core job of SFD is to plant trees to mitigate climate change and develop nurseries to improve green cover in the state. Now, ACFs have been given the additional charge. Many of them are doubling and tripling up on their original duties, thus failing to do justice to their job.
