IWN Report — Friday, 23 October 2026

The forest officer who heads India’s first tiger reserve has announced that he is retiring voluntarily from the Indian Forest Service at mid-career.

Saket Badola, field director of Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand, announced the decision in a post on X on Friday, saying he had arrived at it after months of serious thought and was retiring on personal grounds. Badola, who says he comes from a humble family in Pauri district, thanked the governments he has served, his colleagues in the service, the forest staff, his family and friends, and the public for their support.

Badola wrote that he hopes to “contribute towards nation-building in whatever way I can” and that he expects the warmth and support he has received to continue on whichever path he takes next.

The announcement comes less than three weeks after the inaugural Corbett Literature Festival, which ran in Ramnagar from 6 to 8 October with the Uttarakhand Forest Department and Uttarakhand Tourism and brought together writers, conservationists, photographers and folk artists. The state’s Chief Wildlife Warden credited Badola with initiating it, and he served as its festival director. Corbett was established in 1936 as India’s first national park, and the festival coincided with the 90th anniversary of that founding.

A 2008-batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Uttarakhand cadre, Badola has also headed Rajaji Tiger Reserve, and he was Corbett’s deputy director in 2014, during a spate of fatal tiger attacks on people around Kalagarh.

Sources: Saket Badola on X · Daily Pioneer · NewKerala · Indian Masterminds · Travel And Tour World · Deccan Herald · Al Jazeera