2017-batch Indian Forest Service officer Navdeep Aggarwal, posted as the District Forest Officer in Bhatinda, Punjab, surprised everyone when he decided to give UPSC examination once again in 2021, after almost five years of serving the nation as an IFS officer.
What led to this decision and how did his family react to it? In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Aggarwal revealed all this, and more.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN PATHANKOT
Mr. Aggarwal became an IFS officer in 2017 with AIR-21 and received his first posting as the Deputy DFO in Pathankot. While serving his tenure in the district, the officer and his team worked on several issues, one of them being Solid Waste Management.
He observed that plants and saplings are kept in little plastic bags that hold them until they are planted. These saplings are planted into the soil after being taken out of the plastic bag, which is then thrown away and discarded improperly causing hazards to nature.
To deal with this, the officer came up with an idea wherein he collected empty coconut shells and planted seedlings on them to minimize the use of plastic.
“There was a coconut waste collection area just adjacent to the nursery where people used to drink coconut water and throw away its empty shells. We got the shells collected and decided to use them instead of plastic bags. We pricked a small hole at the bottom of the shells, filled it with mud, and planted saplings in it. They became a natural carrier for the saplings, which could be planted directly into the soil,” shared the officer.
He further added that it proved to be beneficial as it minimized the use of plastic, acted as a natural fertilizer and boosted the growth of the plants, and also minimized the improper discarding of coconut shells.
NABBING FOREST CRIMINALS
Mr. Aggarwal has a specialization in Urban Forestry and digitization of forest boundaries. As most people are unaware of forest boundaries and do not realize the hazards of trespassing, Mr. Aggarwal decided to make use of several technological tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications and software to digitize revenue records.
“These are very heightened applications that not many people use in the department. I studied them deeply, used them to digitize the entire revenue records and utilized them to demarcate the forest boundaries. Through this, our forest rangers could easily access the area’s information and could understand if a person who is doing illegal activities is a part of the forest land or elsewhere. We were able to nab a lot of criminals in this way and the initiative became successful,” he told Indian Masterminds.
Further, the officer also worked diligently in removing illegal encroachments from the area. His effort of bringing in Eco-Tourism in the district helped the people of the forest area by providing them with employment and refraining them from cutting and selling trees illegally.
WORK DURING COVID
Nobody will ever be able to forget the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it spread fear and panic all around. The worst hit amongst all were the migrants who had to walk back miles to reach their villages due to the unavailability of transport, some of them even dying while on the way.
Seeing the desperate condition of the nation, Mr. Aggarwal volunteered to help and support the migrants on their journey in whichever way he could. He handled the entire movement in the district, including the management of shramik trains which began a few weeks later, and coordinated with the heads of all the nearby districts.
“I coordinated with officials from nearby districts for an understanding of how many people are going to move from here and how many are going to come back from there. We also ensured food and water were provided to them once they reached, and they were tested for Covid also,” shared Mr. Aggarwal.
He handled the situation for over two months and believes that this was the actual turning point in his life when he understood the impact that police personnel or administrator can have on people, that a forest officer probably can’t. It was at this moment that he made up his mind to make another attempt at UPSC and clear CSE to become an IAS or IPS officer and expand his horizon in the service.
FROM AN IFS TO IPS
After having seen the work done by the administration and police closely, Mr. Aggarwal wanted to take the exam again to serve society more holistically. Reappearing after a gap of five years definitely seemed challenging, but he knew that ultimately it would lead to better things for him.
His family and especially his wife was very supportive of his decision. In fact, she herself wished to give the UPSC examination. Their family came forward to help them in taking care of their daughter so that the officer and his wife could focus on their preparations.
“I chose Sociology as my optional subject and prepared a strategy that I followed. Luckily, for me, in my present posting, I was relatively free as compared to the job of a DFO. So, I could take out three hours on weekdays for studying. And during holidays and weekends, I used to devote 14 hours a day to study,” shared the officer.
The officer’s hard work paid off as he cleared UPSC CSE 2021 with AIR-150 and finally achieved his dream of becoming an IPS officer, after five years in service as an IFS officer.
Indian Masterminds wishes the officer, who has also been honored with awards for his dedication in the fields of digitization of forest boundaries and Covid management, the very best for his onward journey as an IPS officer.
