Mr. Sujoy Banerjee (PFM 1991-93) is member of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) of Uttar Pradesh cadre, 1997 batch. He is currently posted as CCF (Chief Conservator of Forests), Wildlife (East) at Gonda, U.P. He possess more than two and a half decades experience in the field of conservation. He has expertise of working in various domains: Government, Corporate, Research and Academics, and international non-profit organization.
He was awarded the prestigious British Chevening Scholarship of the Government of the United Kingdom; the International Visitors’ Leadership Programme of the Government of U.S.A. for outstanding contribution in the field of conservation. He had been conferred upon with the Royal Bank of Scotland Earth Heroes Award in 2014 for outstanding work in the field of wildlife and habitat conservation in National Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary. He has also been chosen as a “Global Changemaker” among 35 awardees worldwide from more than 50,000 Chevening Scholarship awardees by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the Government of U.K. in 2019 (35.chevening.org).
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. My journey has been pretty interesting!! I started off with a placement in Ballarpur IndustriesPaper Mill (BILT) in 1993. Exactly a year later, I was selected for the post of Lecturer at IIFM, which I happily joined. I took a maiden attempt at the IFSExaminations in 1996, and as luck would have it, I stood first in the exams!! I have been in the Indian Forest Service thereafter.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. I think that sincerity and hard work always pays off in the long run, no matter which sector you work for. Organizations want to retain talent and hard working people. All of us have our reputation and it is purely up to us what kind of reputation we want to build for ourselves.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. I love forests and wildlife, and I am a wildlife and nature photographer as well. So my job allows me to visit places in nature which is inaccessible to the common public as a part of my job, which is very satisfying. Secondly, I am happy to be able to contribute directly to the protection of forests and wildlife, and trust me, it is not an easy job!
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. I am proud of my IIFM qualification and it has certainly helped me shape my outlook and I have learnt quite a lot at IIFM. I can say this because I have undergone three years training at IGNFA, Dehradun as a part of probation after joining IFS, and I can say that the curriculum at IIFM was more diverse and the management subjects taught to us other than forestry is very useful.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles.
A. I am pained to see some of the IIFM PGs write in their profiles that they are MBA (Forestry). By now, I can say with confidence that writing such things don’t help your career in any way. First we should be convinced that our diploma PGDFM is, in itself, a brand that sells to the employers. Only then our employers will be convinced that this diploma is indeed equivalent or better to suit their requirement than an MBA.
I have worked in WWF between 2006 and 2009 and used to hire a lot of people including freshers and interns. A person who has served in an organization for a year or more and has lesser number of job changes in his career is more preferable than someone who has been job hopping every six months.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. It would need a few pages to write down all the memories that are so dear to me. The two years at IIFM are undoubtedly the best years of my life which I miss badly.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution (courses, faculty, library, friends, alumni.. Anything else!!) or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. It would be difficult to single out any one in particular, as all of them have their own role to play in shaping up an individual. But I am very thankful to my course mates who used to study hard, aur jinko competition dene ki liye khud bhi padhna padta tha!!
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. All the guys and ladies (we had only two) in my batch were great and equally need mention here. And all of them are doing very well in their lives and respective careers. My roommate Dr. Rajpuri Sunder Singh (now known only as Raj Singh in the USA) is a gem of a person and always kept us entertained. Advait Edgaonkar Sir was a perfect companion when it came to playing pranks on people and he is one person I admire, not just because of his wit, but also because he is a keen learner. Sushant, now my senior in IIFM, was great company, and used to visit me every weekend at Yamunanagar from Chandigarh after passing out from IIFM. Suvendu Pati, our topper was again a gem of a person and so was Nikesh Sinha, Debasish (and everyone else not mentioned here). We also shared a very good friendship with our direct senior and junior batch and quite a few of them are worth a mention here.
Q. As an alumni, what’s your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. These two years are a good time to enjoy and learn whatever is of interest to you. It might be a subject on the curriculum or anything else that interests you. Also, this course gives you a lot of opportunity to travel, so I would suggest you make the most out of it.
The PGDFM Diploma is also a great platform to secure a seat/scholarship for higher studies abroad.
Q. What is your typical day at the office? (We want to know what your day job looks like)
A. A typical day (or night) in the current assignment is unpredictable. There is no time table, and you might need to pack your bag in 15 minutes and rush to the field to deal with emergency situations which keep arising quite frequently.
Q. And how about weekends, Hobbies, Family and anything else you want to add
A. I am quite a bit into music and make my own music as well. They can be viewed at www.youtube.com/banjoyifs (or by googling “Sujoy Banerjee music”)
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors
A. Among my favorite movies are Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights, Circus, The Kid. I think he was extremely talented. Other films include the Titanic, Lucy and The Island.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students?
A. Happy to talk to the students anytime.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? What do you think is a positive change and what is not?
A. IIFM is quite the same. Positive change is a lot of infrastructural development that took place over a period of time.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. Vanita Suneja, PFM 93, Paul Basil, PFM 94