Three-day residential workshop for IFS officers held in the Nilgiris

A total of 32 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers attended a three-day residential workshop on the ‘Principles and Practice of Ecological Restoration’ at the Keystone Foundation campus in Kotagiri from September 9 to and 11.The programme was led by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), in collaboration with the Ecological Restoration Alliance-India (ERA), Keystone Foundation, Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and Adavi Trust, a press release from the Keystone Foundation said. The workshop held for the forest officers combined classroom sessions, case studies and field visits, taking officers through the science of ecosystem degradation, restoration planning, monitoring, and the role of communities and policy in restoration efforts. “Officers visited a benchmark site and a newly initiated restoration site over the course of the programme,” the press release said.Pramod G Krishnan, IFS, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (SF), Kerala, and Sanjeeva Pandey, retired PCCF, Himachal Pradesh, facilitated important and engaging sessions during the workshop, it added. Sessions included lectures on ‘Understanding concepts and definitions in ecological restoration’, the ‘Shola-grassland mosaic of The Nilgiris’, monitoring and evaluation of restoration efforts and other concepts.  Published - September 11, 2026 07:23 pm IST