Next time you are in Gujarat, and you see a leopard prowling in an urban area, or any wild animal in distress in the forest area, you can easily call for help right from your phone. All you have to do is call on the number 1926. This is a 24×7 toll free helpline number, activated recently by the Gujarat Forest Department. The number will connect you to a call centre, where an executive will assist you on anything related to the department, like a man-animal conflict situation and even agro forestry schemes. Interested people can get information on forestry schemes, seedling distribution information, etc. One can also get eco-tourism update and assistance for disaster relief and wildlife attack.
Indian Masterminds interacted with 1990-batch IFS officer, Dr. A. P. Singh, who is the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Monitoring & Evaluation Wing, Gujarat, to know more about this helpline number.
HELPLINE 1926
The helpline will enable fast solutions to any untoward incidents occurring in forests, like forest fire, smuggling, poaching and other forest-related crimes and issues.
Dr. A.P. Singh said, “Gujarat is famous for Asiatic lions that are found in the Gir Forest. But now, due to the increase in their number, they have reached the entire Saurashtra region around Gir. Also, due to very good conservation efforts, population of blue bulls, wild boars and leopard have increased, too. So, naturally, cases of man-animal conflict are on the rise. The common people and village sarpanches were upset and used to call on whatever number they could find of government officials. So, the state government decided to have a helpline number.”
He informed that 1926 is a wildlife-related national helpline number. This number has been given to the Forest Departments all over the country, but in Gujarat it was not yet active. Now it has been activated and its control room has been set up in the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Head of Forest Force office. All the concerned officials, like range officers, assistant conservators, deputy conservators, have been added to this number so that they can solve any problem related to their field directly.
Around 20 staff work round the clock in three shifts on this helpline.
HELPING FOREST STAFF
The officer cited a recent example of how the helpline number is also helping forest staff. “Just few days ago, a written exam was held in Gujarat for the appointment of 300 forest guards. All queries related to the examination, like centre, result date, call letter, etc., could be addressed on this number.”
FUTURE PLAN
Talking about adding additional features to the helpline, Dr. Singh said, “In future, other aspects of wildlife and social forestry can also be tackled properly through it and whatever assistance required can be provided. We will also include our social forestry drive to it, so that queries on plants, where to plant them, where to get subsidy, what are the schemes, can be addressed. Soon, we will also add territorial forestry and joint forest management to this helpline number.”
