Ahmedabad: The average age of guards in Palamau Tiger sanctuary is 53 and at Simlipal Tiger Sanctuary it is 49 years, but for guards in Gujarat it is 39 years. Officials said that of 388 staffers, 149 are 20 to 30 years old. The study carried out by deputy conservator of forests Sandeep Kumar revealed that the average age of guards is 39 years, while that of foresters is 42.5 years. The guards and foresters are those actually in the field, responsible for conservation. The task force formed to study the decline of tigers in Sariska have also, in their report ‘The Tiger Task Force - Joining the Dots,’ stated that “steady direct recruitment to RFO cadre at this rate is critical, because the average age of this important field, executive cadre must remain around 40 years.” The report was prepared by Sunita Narain, director of Centre for Science and Environment, H S Panwar, ex-Head of Project Tiger and member of the Wildlife Institute of India, Prof Madhav Gadgil, Valmik Thapar and Samar Singh — all members of the National Board for Wildlife. The report stated “the ability and capacity of staff is an important consideration. As far as this is concerned, most reserves are in the same boat. The average age in the country for guards is 42 years, for foresters, 46 years and for rangers, 47 years. But there are cases of concern — in Palamau the average age of guards is 53 and in Simlipal it is 49 years. The problem here is that the states are cash-strapped and are downsizing staff. In the most recent cases of recruitment, the effort has been to re-deploy persons from other services, which leads to even more problems, or to hire temporary staff.”