The Union ministry of environment and forests wants media-savvy forest officers. Concerned at the "negative coverage' of forest, wildlife and environment-related issues, it organised a training programme for Indian Forest Service officers at Bhubaneswar in the second week of September. Thirty officers from 17 states underwent a five-day course at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, to learn the "art of interacting with the print and electronic media'.

Niraj Kumar, the training coordinator, said, "The aim is to train forest officers to develop collaborative relations with the print and electronic media.'

The agenda included educating the officers in "facing the media with good and bad news and making media a partner in development administration'. A divisional forest officer from Jharkhand participating in the programme told the Hindustan Times, "Most forest officers work in remote areas and they are not able to highlight their activities. I have learnt that sharing information will be more beneficial than holding it back.'