Green Line: Maharashtra forest department helpline flooded with calls

IN JUST nine days, the first-ever helpline set up in the country by the state Forest department has received as many as 2,000 calls. The ‘Hello Forest’ helpline number 1926 was officially launched on January 5 with an aim to make forest governance transparent and credible. Pravin Shrivastava, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (IT), told The Indian Express that so far, there was no single point public interface with the forest department. The call centre facility has been set up at Goregaon in Mumbai and work has been outsourced to SAAR IT solutions. Experts from Pune and Nagpur will oversee the operations.