A 'Career- Chat' with an Indian Forest Officer

It was a cold, windy morning on 2 December, 2013 but many of us high- schoolers braved it to School in order to attend the event of the week the big one we had all been waiting for a workshop by noted IFS officer, Mr. BMS Rathore.

Mr. Rathore is an IFS officer belonging to the 1982 batch of the Indian Forest Service from the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He has extensive experience in the field of participatory forestry, biodiversity conservation, tribal development and issues relating to climate change. He has worked with government agencies, research and training institutes, NGOs, community institutions, Panchayat Raj Institutions, and international agencies such as UNDP, FAO, the Ford Foundation, ICEF, IFAD and DFID. He received the national award, Indira Priyadarshini Vraksha Mitra Award for community- based forest management in 1992. He received the State Governments Gold Medal for professional excellence in forestry in 1990 for his community- based wasteland regeneration programme. Currently he is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests and has been assigned the portfolio of Environmental Education, Green India Mission and is the country focal point for United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), IUCN & ICIMOD.

By the end of the third period, we had all been seated in the A/V room. On our best behaviour, we waited for Mr. Rathore. His knowledge of his field was evident; he started shooting questions at the biology students from the moment he took the podium. Apparently, he had familiarised himself with every plant on the campus, including the plant he had been given by the students as a gift, as per our School- tradition. Now he truly had become an object of admiration for the students!

Coming to the topic, he asked the children what they thought about the civil services and whether they considered it a career option. A wide and enthusiastic range of answers followed. In order to throw some light on the civil services, he first asked his audience what in their opinions was the first thing that came to their minds when they thought of an IAS officer. Again, a number of answers followed, the best including power, 'responsibility' and a VIP beacon on top of the car.

Soon, he started speaking about his career, something that once again didnt fail to grab our attention. He talked about the pros and cons of his job. It turned out that the life of an IFS officer was more interesting and adventure-filled than any of us could have envisaged.

When it came to the question answer session, most of us were bursting with queries, all of which Mr. Rathore gladly entertained. Of course, like every other workshop we had attended, we noticed how a few students repeatedly kept coming up with questions like how to go about cracking the civil services' exam?. They were even curious to know the rewards of being an IFS officer! It was indication enough that this workshop had made an impression by setting some minds ticking about joining the civil services.

After all, these workshops by different people who have excelled in their respective fields have always given us, aspiring teenagers, a new career option to be considered.