She wanted to become a forest officer since childhood. Now she is an IFS officer

Posted as a forest officer in the Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, Stylo Mandavi talks about how her childhood experiences steered her towards her profession. This is her story in her own words.

The sweet smell of mahua takes me back to my childhood days. 

It filled my senses whenever I visited my grandmother in Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district. 

She woke up at dawn to collect the small yellow mahua flowers lying on the forest floor. So did everyone in the village. The mahua flowers were then dried and sold in the rural markets.

Then there was the busy tendu season when women gathered the leaves – used for making beedis – and left them on the school premises to dry. 

While everyone in the village was busy collecting mahua flowers and tendu leaves, important sources of income for forest communities, I used to hop around and skip about like a typical young school girl.  Sometimes I relished chapra (red ant) chutney and madia pej (porridge), a great combination.

Observing the women collecting tendu and mahua, I understood early on how communities depended on minor forest produce. Naturally this influenced my choice of joining the Indian Forest Service. 

I realised I could serve people better as a forest officer.

There are certain misconceptions regarding the profession. People think we have to live inside the forest but we have good accommodation facilities. 

There are quite a few female forest officers and guards in Chhattisgarh where I’m posted.

Chhattisgarh has so much of tendu. In the lean agricultural season, the economy of the villages runs on the collection of mahua and tendu.

In the Orchha administrative block, women procure hill grass for making brooms. I organised them in groups and helped them sell their products. 

The life of a forest officer is often challenging. 

At present I am posted in Raigarh as the divisional forest officer where human-elephant conflict is acute. 

To prevent casualties, the forest department has formed a phone-based messaging group with local people’s participation. People report the movement of elephants and share information. This helps us protect lives. 

I’m thinking of developing a stringent monitoring system where the use of alarms can alert residents of Dharamjaigarh and Raigarh, two places where conflict is common. 

There are also hathi mitras or friends of the elephant who urge people to watch out while travelling during late hours. 

But I have to be always on my toes. 

As a forest officer there are other challenges too. Encroachment on forest land is a problem. To deal with this sensitive issue, I have to make people understand, but it is sometimes tough. 

Most of the time, however, I’m deep inside the forests. In Narayanpur, a sensitive forested district, I had to travel on motorbikes with forest guards.

But my work has its perks too. 

I recently met the popular Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar while he was shooting in my division. It was a memorable experience. 

Earlier I got to meet the actors Rajkummar Rao and Sanjay Mishra. Sanjay was so down to earth. 

In my spare time, I go on treks, though not as often as I did during my training at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy in Dehradun.