Ben Madilynn
The Bannerghatta Biological Park (
As of March 2024, BBP has 1,623 mammals, 331 birds, and 221 reptiles. While the park has three sanctioned posts – Deputy Director
“We currently have a VO, apart from a pathologist from the Institute of Animal Health & Veterinary Biologicals. We have one more veterinarian on an additional charge from Bannerghatta National Park. However, our veterinarians also need to attend rescue calls. Thus, there is a need to hire one or two more as soon as possible,” said AV Surya Sen, deputy conservator of forest, BBP.
In 2019, 20 posts of forest guards and watchers were created at BBP under the Cadre and Recruitment rule. However, officials say these posts, which are necessary for better management of animals at the park and smooth functioning of the system, never got occupied. Officials say the roles were created to act as intermediaries between range officers and
In recent times, highly educated applicants – PhD holders, engineers, and those with master’s degrees- have applied for the posts of forest guards and watchers advertised by the
.
Overseer needed
“BBP has different sections such as safari, Butterfly Park, rescue center, zoo, hospital, etc and each section requires special attention. If the animal keepers have to be managed efficiently and monitored well, there is a need for an intermediary between range officers and animal keepers. This is the reason vacancies for forest guards and watchers were created. These guards can help us in managing animal keepers and overseeing activities such as if animals are fed on time, food that they are getting and timely reporting of a sick animal,” said an official.
BBP says it has written to the forest department highlighting
“We have written to the department to fill these vacancies. While the department is conducting counseling for the posts of guards and watchers, preference is given to field postings, where there already are a lot of vacancies. While overall staff strength is good and we are outsourcing human resources wherever needed and possible, we need to conduct some recruitment from our side,” said the official.
