Union Minister of State Jairam Ramesh handing over the award to P Sivakumar, DFO, Digboi Forest Division.
Assam DFO bags National Forestry Award Correspondent DIGBOI, Nov 22 P Sivakumar, an Indian Forest Service officer, at present working as Divisional Forest Officer of Digboi Forest Division, received the prestigious National Forestry Award, the Indira Priyadarshani Vriksha Mitra (IPVM) Award recently at a glittering function in New Delhi from Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Forests and Environment, Govt of India. The award was given to him under individual category for the year, 2008 for his excellent contributions in the field of afforestation and wasteland development. The assessment was done on the basis of his implementation of the World Bank projects in Nagaon South Division, Hojai through active involvement of the Joint Forest Management Committees of the fringe villages.
The award given for the first time to an officer of the State Forest Department should boost the morale the departmental personnel particularly in view of the constraints they have to go through within their slots of duty. Jairam Ramesh is stated to have expressed his special commendation of P Sivakumars achievements which he wrested in spite of the charged atmosphere of insurgency in the area of his project implementation.
A very suave but determined Sivakumar considered the award as a recognition to the services rendered by the Department as a whole. Asked about his feelings at the time of receiving the award, he said that he felt happy because through him the State Forest Department got the due recognition at the national level. He was personally thankful to the State Forest Minister, Rockybul Hussain, the Nodal Officer of the World Bank Projects, Dr RM Dubey and the Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Balaji for their unstinted support to him during the period of project implementation in Hojai.
