After a two-day strike, 200 forest workers at Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh, have called off their strike today June 11. These workers, who are part of the Special Tiger Protection Force [STPF] with the forest department, claim that they have not been paid salaries since December last year forcing them to go on a strike.

“We did not get salaries for six months. We have wives and kids to look after. It was difficult to manage living during the pandemic,” Nakim Nabum, general secretary of the Pakke Tiger Reserve Workers Union, told Gaon Connection.

Yesterday on June 10, the state government assured to release salaries of the workers within 15 days. An order to that effect was issued by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests RK Singh urging the workers to call off the strike ‘immediately’ and get back to duties.

“Please know that the entire department and the State government have their greatest concern for the welfare of its frontline staff. You are hereby requested to call off the strike and get back to your respective camps and duties,” read the letter.

These over 200 workers have been guarding the Pakke Tiger Reserve which is spread over 862 square kilometres in Pakke-Kessang district of the northeastern state. Because of the strike, the tiger reserve was left unsecured after all 202 workers with their eight elephants converged at the tiger reserve’s administration office to demand their six-months’ pending salary.

“The state government has given us a written assurance. It says it will provide wages within 15 days this month. Hence, we have called off the strike. But we have given an ultimatum of three months to the state government to fulfill all our demands,” Nabum told Gaon Connection. The workers called off the strike today June 11 at 3:30 pm.

However, the workers’ union has warned that if the state government does not release their pending wages within 15 days, they will then sit on an indefinite strike until all their demands are met within three months.

What are the workers’ demands 

Apart from the release of pending salaries for six months, the workers’ union has demanded regularisation of STPF [Special Tiger Protection Force] jobs and other contingency staff who have completed more than 15 years of service in the department.

In 2008, a one time grant of Rs 50 crore [Rs 500 million] was provided to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for raising, arming and deploying a Special Tiger Protection Force. This force includes trained police personnel for patrolling the forests to safeguard tigers, co predators, and prey animals.

As per the workers’ union, the Pakke workers were given their wages from April-November 2020 after the NTCA had sanctioned Rs 6.05 crore [Rs 60.5 million] for 2020-2021 fiscal and released a part of it.

The workers’ union has also demanded an increase in their wages last revised in 2018. As against their existing monthly wages of Rs 11,000 (for forest guard), the workers are demanding Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 a month of regular payment.

“We demand a fixed monthly pay of at least twenty to twenty five thousand rupees. We work hard, all day and night. We will continue to fight for our rights,” said Nabum from Pakke Tiger Reserve.

There are 51 tiger reserves in India which are governed by Project Tiger administered by the NTCA. Pakke Tiger Reserve being one of them is home to at least 40 mammal species including the Bengal tiger, Indian leopard and clouded leopard. Other notable mammals in the Tiger Reserve are jungle cat, Himalayan black bear, binturong, elephant, barking deer.

Pakke Tiger Reserve has won India Biodiversity Award 2016 in the category of ‘Conservation of threatened species’ for its Hornbill Nest Adoption Programme.

Declare forest staff as frontline workers

Meanwhile, last month, the Indian Forest Service (IFS) Association urged the states to declare forest staff as frontline workers on an immediate basis, just like their colleagues in police and revenue departments.

Highlighting the COVID19 exposure risk and deaths of the forest staff while performing their duties in the pandemic, the association demanded to declare forest staffs as frontline warriors so that they can be vaccinated on priority.

Also Read: Declare forest staff as frontline workers: IFS Association