M. K. Yadava
IFS, Working Plan Officer
Working Plan is the set of management prescriptions written for the Reserved Forest areas (in general) after systematic ground survey and mapping of available forest resources. Working Plans are the chief documents of translating the National Forest Policies laid down from time to time, into meaningful executable prescriptions which are then followed by the field staff. Over more than a century, these plans have been acting as the data and map base of the Forest Departments of the States. During the period of National Forest Policy, 1894 and 1952, Working Plans mainly were vehicles of maximizing Government Revenue, and converting more and more natural forest tracts into silviculturally managed uniform forest carefully nurtured to maximize revenue. Since the promulgation of the National Forest Policy, 1988, the entire orientation of the Plans have undergone a sea change.
In the past, the Working Plans have been the equivalent of Geographic Information System ‘in the forestry sector. Today, availability of high configuration computers and powerful software have infused GIS and Working Plan into a powerful management too in the forestry sector. The paper explores the various vistas of this infusion in detail.
