The Kashmir Forest Training Institute in Chatternar Bandipora is situated amid a beautiful conifer forest. The lush green forest warms one’s soul when one enters the beautiful campus. The institute is hardly 3 km from main town Bandipora and 58 kms from Srinagar.
With the advent of scientific management of forests in the 19th century, the need for trained subordinate staff was felt for efficient protection of forests as well as better supervision and execution of various plans and schemes. Thus the Kashmir Forest Training School was founded at Chatternar Bandipora in the year 1911. The school was founded by Mr WH Lovegrove, the third Conservator of Forests in the region who headed the Jammu and Kashmir Forest Department from 1907 to 1915. He had the vision and foresight to establish a forestry school at this remote place. Unfortunately, the governments that followed failed to carry on the mission and the glory of one of the oldest institutes of the country was lost.
The Dehradun Forest Research Institute was established in 1906. It is the oldest one in the country, but after just 5 years of it, the Kashmir Forest Training School in Bandipora was established, so it is almost as old. Besides being one of the oldest forest training institutes, it is considered as one of the best picnic spots. The campus stretches to almost 3 km, containing within it offices of different government departments like of Social Forestry, Wildlife, Soil Conservation, Divisional Forest Office, etc. Nurseries with hundreds of species of different plants and herbs can be found here, which help the trainee foresters and forest guards in the school to have practical knowledge of their field.
A beautiful playground inside the campus adds beauty to this school. Although the playground is not too big, but it is the talk of the town during the cricket season as it hosts cricket leagues in which the famous cricketers of the state participate. A huge rush of people including children can be seen in the campus, the people coming from all corners of Bandipora to watch their favourite players in these matches.
The other uniqueness of this ground is that in the west it is surrounded by the Oak Land Nursery, which has huge tall trees whose shadows cover half of the playground and through which pleasant breeze blows all summer, acting as a natural cooler and conserving the energy of players even in hot summers.
On weekends, the campus is full with people coming from different areas for picnic purposes. Unfortunately, this has polluted the campus as people throw trash everywhere. The negligence of the authorities is such that you cannot find a dustbin anywhere.
As far as development of this century-old institution is concerned, it can be guessed from the fact that the institution which has been founded before the independence of India and which has completed more than 110 years, has not been upgraded yet. It should have been upgraded to a Forest Research Institute long ago, but no government has considered it fit to do so.
The interior of this beautiful campus is in a shambles. The roads inside have not been macdamised in the past 20 years, despite the fact that this forest campus has hosted many of the official functions of the district administration.
When the Covid pandemic broke out in Kashmir, several Covid centres were operating from the school campus, including the district testing centre for Bandipora.
The government must show some seriousness in developing this training school and upgrade it to a research institute. The roads must be macadamised and proper footpaths laid. Installation of dustbins at different spots inside the campus and the role of people, more particularly the local inhabitants, in preserving this natural forest is the need of the hour.
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Mudasir Nazir