Shri Dipak Sarmah, a retired Indian Forest Service (1977) officer of the Karnataka cadre, started his career in the Western Ghats, serving in the region for more than a decade. During this period, he was primarily responsible for the protection and development of forests. He was awarded the Karnataka Rajyotsava award (Chief Minister’s Gold Medal) during November 1980 for his distinguished services in forest protection. He was part of a team that had steered an innovative program in Uttara Kannada district for rehabilitation of degraded forests with a focus on rigid protection and planting of indigenous species, including bamboo. The district won the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra award (1989) for exemplary afforestation work. Shri Sarmah also served in the Government of India as Deputy Adviser, Planning Commission and as Deputy Inspector General of Forests, Forest Policy, MoEF (1991-1995). Later he served in a number of positions in the Government of Karnataka including Secretary (Forest), PCCF (Wildlife) & Chief Wildlife Warden, superannuating in December 2013 as PCCF (Head of Forest Force). Post-retirement, Shri Sarmah has assisted the Forest Department in the preparation of a number of documents such as working plans, evaluation reports, Cadre Review Report, Training Action Plan, etc. He has also assisted the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), Bangalore in compiling the State of Environment Report (SoER-2015) as chief editor.
In 2011, Shri Dipak Sarmah was nominated by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India to the Monitoring Committee to supervise mining operations and sale of ore in Karnataka. He continues to serve as the Chairman of the Committee till date.