For Brij Kishore Singh, the answer was simple: stand your ground and lead from the front.
A 1976-batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Karnataka cadre, Singh spent nearly four decades working across some of the state’s most challenging forest landscapes. His career took him from the heavily forested terrain of Uttara Kannada to the forests of Kollegal, where the shadow of Veerappan loomed large, and eventually to the highest position in the Karnataka Forest Department as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force.
Along the way, he faced smugglers, poachers, encroachments, political pressure and difficult decisions over forest diversion. He also worked as Chief Wildlife Warden, evaluated protected areas across India and later continued his engagement with conservation through organisations including the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Zoo Authority of Karnataka and Wildlife Institute of India.
At the Eco Warrior Awards, organised by Indian Masterminds in association with the Indian Forest Service Association, Singh was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his long contribution to forests and wildlife conservation. Looking back at his career, one principle runs through his experiences: a forest officer cannot protect forests by staying away from them.
A Career That Began in the Forests of Uttara Kannada
When Singh received his first posting in Uttara Kannada in 1978, the forests looked very different. The district was heavily forested, with five territorial divisions. The monsoon brought long periods of rain, and forestry practices were still centred on coupe working, clear-felling and selection felling in some areas.Planting teak and other species was a major part of the work. But as management practices changed, so did Singh’s approach.
During his early years in Uttara Kannada, he developed a deep attachment to the landscape. It was also where he decided what he wanted his career to stand for. “While roamed in Uttara Kannada, I developed love for the landscape and took a pledge to dedicate myself for the conservation of forests and wildlife,” he recalled. His first lessons were practical. Forest protection meant preventing illegal felling, smuggling, poaching and encroachment. It also meant controlling forest fires and being present in the field.
That belief would shape the rest of his career.
When Veerappan Became Part of the Job
His posting as DCF Kollegal between 1988 and 1991 brought him into one of the most difficult chapters of his career. When Singh arrived, he was advised not to enter the forests without adequate police protection. But he found the suggestion difficult to accept. How could a forest officer understand and protect a forest without walking through it? For nearly nine months, he moved through the forests with frontline staff. He inspected boundaries and plantations and spent nights in the open near the Cauvery.
He did this despite the presence of Veerappan and his gang in the larger landscape. The situation changed dramatically in 1989 after sandalwood smuggling intensified. Hundreds of people were involved in transporting sandalwood from Tamil Nadu into Karnataka forests. Then came a deadly sequence of events involving forest personnel and police.
In January 1990, Singh himself experienced the danger directly. An informant claimed to know where a large quantity of hidden sandalwood had been stored. Singh, accompanied by frontline forest staff, the Superintendent of Police and around 40 police personnel, went to the location.
They did not find the sandalwood. Instead, they came under fire from Veerappan’s gang, which was positioned behind rocks and trees. Two policemen were injured. “I straight headed to my home in Kollegal, and looking at my blood-stained shirt, my wife was terrified,” Singh recalled. “I told her that the Policeman standing by my side was injured and the blood spilled all over my shirt.”
The experience did not make him retreat from field work. It strengthened his determination.
‘An IFS Officer Must Lead From the Front’
For Singh, the incident reinforced a larger lesson about forest protection. Forests are vast. Roads are often poor. Effective patrolling therefore requires people to walk through the landscape. “IFS officer must lead from the front, then only field level functionaries would be alert and would walk in the forests,” he said.
Technology can support this work. Singh pointed to modern patrolling applications that record the movement of forest staff. But he believes senior officers should not depend only on digital records. “They should not only monitor the records of patrolling, but should himself lead the team periodically,” he said.
This field-first philosophy remained central to his approach even after he rose to senior positions.
Standing Firm When Forests Were at Stake
As PCCF and Head of Forest Force, Singh had to take decisions where conservation interests came into conflict with development proposals and political pressure. One such case involved a proposed hydropower project in the Western Ghats in Karnataka. The project involved forest land in an area that Singh described as some of the best quality forests and an important elephant habitat.
During a site visit, he found that work had extended beyond the approved area. A tunnel had been excavated, debris had been dumped in the forest and trees and natural regeneration had been damaged.
He recommended that the proposal be rejected. Despite pressure from politicians and bureaucrats, he did not change his position. The Karnataka government eventually rejected the proposal.
Another case involved the dismissal of a Range Forest Officer accused of illegal cutting and transportation of valuable trees. Singh said he was asked by the Forest Minister to soften his stand. He refused. His reasoning was straightforward: protecting forests cannot mean making exceptions for those entrusted with protecting them.
The Cost of Changing Land Use
Singh’s concerns about forests also extend beyond individual projects. His book, Changing Land Uses – Death of Perennial Streams, examines the connection between land-use change and the decline of perennial streams, particularly in the Western Ghats. He points to Kodagu, the source region of the Cauvery and several other rivers, as an example of the ecological consequences of forest degradation.
According to Singh, the loss of forest cover in high-altitude areas affects water systems far beyond the forests themselves. He believes the disappearance of forests is closely connected to flooding, landslides, drying streams and growing pressure on water resources. “Several rivers originate from Western Ghats and the life of the people of peninsular India is dependent on these rivers,” he said.
Wildlife Needs Connected Landscapes
As Chief Wildlife Warden, Singh saw another major challenge emerging across India: habitat fragmentation. For him, elephants are a clear example. He believes expanding linear infrastructure, diversion of protected areas and unsuitable cropping patterns around forests are contributing to rising human-elephant conflict.
“The fragmentation and degradation of habitats for wild animals especially elephants are the main cause of concern,” he said.
For Singh, conservation cannot be separated from landscape planning. Wildlife needs connected habitats, while communities living around forests also need security and livelihoods.
Learning Beyond Karnataka
After retirement, Singh spent nearly a decade evaluating the management effectiveness of sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves. The experience took him across different states and also gave him an opportunity to observe conservation practices outside India. During a Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards assessment in Malaysia, he observed differences in the way protected areas were managed.
He noted that Malaysian protection staff generally lived outside protected areas and entered forests for assigned patrols. Teams changed their patrol areas, composition and night-halt locations rather than repeatedly covering the same beats. For Singh, such experiences reinforced the value of learning from different conservation models.
The Lesson He Wants Young Officers to Remember
Despite his long career, Singh’s advice to young forest officers remains remarkably simple. They must walk. They must remain fit. And, most importantly, they must remember why they joined the service. Even at 73, Singh continues to jog with trainees at the Karnataka Forest Academy, where he is invited as a guest faculty member.
For him, physical fitness is not merely personal discipline. It is part of being able to do the job. Looking back at the young officer who began his career in Uttara Kannada, Singh would offer the same message he has carried throughout his service.
Forest officers have been recruited to protect and develop forests and wildlife. Their decisions may sometimes affect individuals or groups, but they must keep the larger ecological interest in mind.
“Forests provide a number of ecological services and the destruction can threaten the lives and livelihood of the communities,” he said. And then comes the question that perhaps best captures his philosophy after nearly four decades in the Forest Service: “If they do not protect forests, who else will do that?” For B K Singh, that was never just a question. It was the responsibility that defined his career.
