I recently found out to my pleasant surprise that the first Indian forest officer was a Parsi named Framjee Rustomjee Desai, the son (then aged 20, according to some sources) of a Bombay merchant. Unfortunately, the government archives seem to have no further information on Desai except that he was among the seven gentlemen who would become the first officers of the Imperial Forest Service. [In 1921, the name was changed to Indian Forest Service, (IFS), thus laying the foundation of the Forest Department in India.]
The only information I have been able to find on Desai is: "In 1867, five candidates including an Indian, Desai, were selected to undergo the training in France. As it was considered necessary to train some officers in Germany also, two more candidates were sent to Hanover for training under Forest Director Burckhardt.
"The period of training suggested by (Sir Dietrich) Brandis (German-British botanist and forestry academic and administrator who was the first Inspector General of Forests in India) was two-and-a-half years. The outbreak of war between France and Prussia brought to an abrupt close the probationers’ training in France, as the Nancy School was closed down. The probationers were transferred to Scotland where the training was continued at the University of St Andrews under the supervision of Dr Cleghorn, who had served as a Conservator of Forests in Madras.”
The seven officers were W. Henman, A. Pingelly, E. A. Moir, Desai, L. Gavin, J. K. Hume and A. E. Wild. The first five were directed to report to Paris on March 1, 1866 to join the French National School of Forestry while the other two were sent to the Forest Director at Hanover to join the Bavarian Forest School at Aschaffenburg-on-the-Main.
I was wondering whether it might be possible to locate Desai’s family to find out more about this remarkable man. It is a matter of great regret that we don’t know much about the first ever Indian IFS officer. If I am able to contact his family or someone who might know about him I would like to write about Desai’s life and times so that he takes his rightful place in the history of forest administration in India. RAZA KAZMI
raza.kazmi17@gmail.com