Hyderabad: The Telangana forest department has scored over the Andhra Pradesh forest department in the constitution of the State Board for Wildlife, the first followed the rules, while the other ignored the rules. The SBW constituted for Telangana is as per the guidelines of the ministry of environment and forests.
It has civil society members on the board other than government representatives. The SBW constituted by the APFD in a hush-hush manner, before taking a decision to downsize the contour levels of the Kolleru lake, has just 13 members. All of them are representatives of state and central government institutions.
The Telangana SBW has three NGOs dealing with wildlife and ten conservationists apart from representatives of state and central government institutions, three MLAs, the Chief Minister as its chairperson and environment minister as the vice chairperson. In total, Telangana SBW has 31 members. The NGOs include World Wide Fund for Nature India(WWF), Bird Watchers’ Society and the Center for Environmental Education.
Imran Siddiqui, one of the ten conservationists on the board noted, “Including NGOs and conservationists as per the guidelines of MoEF shows that the Telangana Forest Department has the right intent, it wants transparency in taking decisions and seeks development without trampling the environment.”
