Forest Research Institute (India)

Forest Research Institute

Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, distant view
Established 1906
Location India FRI and College Area, Dehradun
Website Official website

The Forest Research Institute (FRI) is an institute of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and is a premier institution in the field of forestry research in India. It is located at Dehradun in Uttarakhand, and is one of the oldest institutions of its kind. In 1991, it was declared a deemed university by the University Grants Commission.[1]

The Forest Research Institute campus hosts the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), the staff college that trains officers selected for the Indian Forest Service (IFS).

History

It was founded in 1878 as the British Imperial Forest School.[2] by Dietrich Brandis.[3]

In 1906, it was reestablished as the Imperial Forest Research Institute, under the British Imperial Forestry Service.[2]

The Indian Forest College was established in 1938; officers recruited to the Superior Forest Service by the states and provinces were trained there.

Architecture

Forest Research Institute front view

Established as Imperial Forest Research Institute in 1906, the Forest Research Institute (FRI) Dehradun, was first located at Chandhbagh (the present location of the Doon School) on the Mall Road. A much larger campus at the present location was acquired ca 1923. Construction of the present buildings commenced thereafter. Styled in Greeko Roman Architecture by C.G. Blomfield, the main building was inaugurated in 1929 by then Viceroy Willingdon. It is now a National Heritage site.

FRI Dehradun is one of the oldest institutions of its kind and acclaimed the world over. The institute’s history is virtually synonymous with the evolution and development of scientific forestry, not only in India, but over the entire sub-continent. Built over a lush green estate spread over 450 hectares, with the outer Himalaya forming its back drop, the institute’s main building is an impressive edifice, marrying Greco-Roman and Colonial styles of architecture, with a plinth area of 2.5 hectares. The building was listed for a time, in the Guinness Book of Records, as the largest purely brick structure in the world. The institute has a developed infrastructure of all equipped laboratories, library, herbarium, arboreta, printing press and experimental field areas for conducting forestry research, quite in keeping with the best of its kind anywhere in the world. It is 7 km from Clock Tower, on the Dehradun-Chakrata motorable road and is of the biggest forest based training institute in India. Most of the forest officers are a part of this institute. The FRI's building also houses a Botanical Museum.[4]

Location

FRI and College Area campus is a census town, between Kashmir in the north and the Indian Military Academy to the south. The Tons River forms its Western Boundary.

Lawn at FRI in Evening

Training facility

Within its campus it hosts Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), which is a separate organisation of the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). It also hosts the Central Academy for State Forest Services (CASFOS). The Wildlife Institute of India was on campus but now has moved to Chandrabani, and is an independent organisation under MoEF. IIFM is an independent autonomous organisation of MoEF and has good liaisoning with FRI for forestry research and related activities. The deemed university of FRI runs four MSc courses viz. Cellulose & Paper Technology, Environment Management, Forestry Management, Wood Science Technology and two P.G.Diploma courses in Natural Resource Management and Aroma Technology. It also enrolls large number of research scholars every year for PhD.

The Front view of the Main FRI building.

Museum

FRI also contains a museum on forestry. It is open from 9:30am to 5:00pm daily, which an entry fee of Rs 40 per person and a nominal entry fee for vehicles. There are six sections in the museum:

  1. Pathology Museum
  2. Social Forestry Museum
  3. Silviculture Museum
  4. Timber Museum
  5. Non-Wood Forest Products Museum
  6. Entomology Museum

More than half a dozen movies Dulhan Ek Raat Ki, Krishna Cottage, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, Kamra No. 404, Paan Singh Tomar, Nanban, Student of the Year, Dilli Khabar, Yaara and Dear Daddy were majorly shot in this campus. Television commercial ad of Bournvita was also shot here. Punjabi song Pyaar tere naal he and Sajjan Raji by Satinder Sartaj also shot here.[5]

Rash Behari Bose worked here as a head clerk, before becoming a full-time participant in the Independence movement.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/deemeduniv.html". Archived from the original on 2010-11-29. External link in |title= (help)
  2. 1 2 "Forest Research Institute Dehradun".
  3. ↑ Bailey, F. (1885). "The Indian Forest School". Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society. 11, part 2: 155–161.
  4. ↑ "FRI Dehradun - Forest Research Institute in Dehradun Uttarakhand".
  5. ↑ "Dehradun Shines in First Look of Karan Johar’s Student of the Year". DehradunBuzz.
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Coordinates: 30°20′38″N 77°59′58″E / 30.3439°N 77.9994°E / 30.3439; 77.9994

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