Utilising emerging technologies for the overall management of forestry to bring about transparency and better governance to the system is crucial, tells A K Nigam, Managing Director, Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited in an interview with Kartik Sharma of ENN
What are the overall aspects of FDCM?
The Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited is primarily into production forestry, plantation and a lot of other activities. The Corporation was born way back in 1969 as the Forest Development Board, then registered under the Companies Act, 1956. After 5 years in 1974, it became a public undertaking.
It was set up in line with the recommendations of the National Commission on Agriculture to raise manmade forests. It works towards saving land for the Forest Department for plantation purposes. The Corporation controls 6 percent of the land area, which works out to about 3.5 lakh hectares. We have the experience of raising plantation in these past years to the extent of 5.25 lakh hectares, which is an achievement in itself.
Primarily, we are into teak forestry because teak is the predominant and natural species in most parts of Maharashtra. We can also call it ‘green gold’ as it is an ideal timber species. However, in addition to that we have also raised lots of miscellaneous crops. We have undertaken lot of turnkey projects for other agencies like Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), defence, film cities, etc. In addition to all that, we are also involved with plant conservation and wildlife management; we are developing a project Gorewada International Zoo and Rescue Centre in Nagpur.
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How was your experience at the Lonavla Knowledge Exchange conference?
It was a good learning process for me because when you deal with people, forests and wildlife, then the issues are slightly different. How you apply the emerging technologies for the overall management of this system to bring transparency, better governance to the system is more important. From this point of view, it was a very good experience.
Our organisation is working to bring all this to our company as well and by attending this event I see lot of opportunities for every sector to find solutions for their respective problems. By attending this event, policy makers have also become aware of the certain changes that they can bring in so that companies can bring about operational efficiency.
Our honorable prime minister has given the slogan of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’. So, with fewer people in the organization, how to deliver the goods and services in an efficient and transparent manner is the real challenge.
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Any feedback regarding this event?
Elets is doing an amazing job and you should continue with that. Interact with more and more government agencies, which will benefit both parties.