New Delhi: A group of 40 former civil servants wrote an open letter to the Chief Secretary of Assam on Tuesday, urging him to withdraw an order deploying forest guards for assembly election duty in the state. Calling the move an alarming decision, the letter stressed how forest officials and personnel were not supposed to be deployed for any election-related duties according to the rules set by the Election Commission of India.
“These instructions are designed to ensure that critical ecological protection and forest governance functions are not put at risk during elections,” reads the letter written by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG). “We are alarmed to find that these guidelines have been violated by senior officials of the Assam government,” it continued.
The CCG referred to a 19 March order directing 1,600 personnel from the Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) to election-related duties. The order was issued via a letter by the Special Chief Secretary, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Department, Government of Assam.
Assam is one of the five states, along with West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry, set to hold Assembly Elections in 2026. With polls scheduled for 9 April, Assam is in full swing with officials and personnel from government schools, revenue and district administration departments diverted for election duty.
While the forest department is also a government department, the letter by the CCG said that it is in direct “contravention of legal and administrative norms” to deploy forest officials for election duty.
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Safety of flora and fauna
The decision was also criticised by other wildlife and environment experts, such as Debadityo Sinha, Senior Research Fellow and Lead, Climate and Ecosystems, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, who took to X to voice his discontent.
According to the letter by the CCG, diverting the personnel and resources of the state forest department away from other duties would endanger the safety of flora and fauna within the state. Animals like the Indian Rhinoceros, Hollock Gibbons, golden langur and pygmy hogs are endemic to Assam, and are housed in the state’s 18 wildlife sanctuaries.
Rhinoceroses are one of the world’s most poached animals globally, and in places like South Africa and Kenya, there are armed forest guards deployed 24/7 to protect the last vestiges of this species in their national parks. Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, too, has a stringent policy against poachers and is one of the only parks in India with a shoot-on-sight order. However, policies such as this require the constant presence of guards and forest personnel, and diverting 1,600 of them for other duties would potentially impede anti-poaching and protection measures for Assam’s wildlife.
Moreover, the decision was said to be in violation of both the Election Commission of India’s guidelines as well as a 2024 order by the Supreme Court of India, which recognised forest-related work as essential and exempted forest officials from other, election-related duties. Citing these two directives, the CCG asked Assam’s Chief Secretary to course correct.
“We urge you to immediately intervene and withdraw the impugned order deploying AFPF personnel for election duty and ensure that they scrupulously carry out their duty of forest protection,” states the letter.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)