Gandhinagar: After a gap of over one year, the state government has reconstituted the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL), which consists of 27 members. The board, headed by the chief minister, includes former forest officers serving as experts.

The board has been reconstituted after a gap of 15 months since the dissolution of the previous body. Formed on Thursday, the newly constituted board consists of eight conservationists, ecologists, and environmentalists.

Among the new board members are Dhanraj Nathwani, group senior vice-president of Reliance Industries; Suresh Bhatt, trustee of Lakhota Nature Club in Jamnagar; Sanjay Kelaiya of the Natural Heritage Conservation Society in Junagadh; Chandravijaysinh Rana, former wildlife warden of Jamnagar; Rohit Shashikant Vyas, former member of SBWL from Vadodara; and Devvratsinh Mori from Wadhwan, Surendranagar. The board also includes two former forest officers, APCCF (retd) R.D. Kamboj and PCCF and HoFF (retd) C.N. Pandey, who is also associated with IIT Gandhinagar.

The board has allocated three spots for representatives from non-government organizations. Additionally, the board will have one representative from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Officials have stated that the board will convene at least twice a year to make decisions regarding the selection and management of protected areas, formulation of policies for wildlife and plant conservation, and other related matters. DeshGujarat