PANAJI
Rajiv Kumar Gupta took over as the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) on Monday. The new PCCF has expertise and experience in silviculture, urban forestry and besides forest protection. He also has an insight of Forest-Tribal interface through his previous experience of working in Mizoram and adopts a rational approach towards development and environment conservation.
Gupta belongs to the 1988 batch of Indian Forest Service from the AGMUT cadre. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad and a master’s degree in irrigation engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, besides an MSc degree in forestry from Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun.
He has administrative experience in the forestry sector and in power sector, having worked both in the central and state governments.
He has previously worked in various capacities at Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) level in Mizoram, especially in forest management, forest planning and finance and forest silviculture.
As DCF in the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, he specialised in the field of urban forestry. As Conservator of Forests in Mizoram, he had been responsible for the silviculture research, forest training and forest protection.
In the central government, he extensively dealt with forest conservation issues under the ministry of environment and forests and climate change.
As director in the ministry of power, he looked after the development of the hydro power sector in the country. Before joining OIL, he was commissioner and secretary, power and electricity and minor irrigation departments in the Mizoram government wherein he was responsible for policy interventions and development of both infrastructure sectors in the state.
Having worked in North-East India for more than 15 years, he has developed keen insight in the Forest-Tribal interface. Similarly, with his experience in the infrastructure sector as well as in forest conservation, he has developed a rational approach towards developmental needs vis-a-vis the environmental concerns.
