Thiruvananthapuram, Nov. 25 -- Kerala CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam has urged that forest department employees assigned to the nationwide tiger census be ensured their voting rights in the upcoming local self-government elections.
Nearly 3,000 forest department personnel from Kerala have been deployed in remote forest areas as part of the census, he noted.
Viswam highlighted that the census is scheduled to conclude on December 8, making it extremely difficult for employees stationed in deep forest locations to return in time to cast their votes on December 9.
"Tigers will not disappear from the forests in a day or two," he said, adding that it is both democratic and reasonable to reschedule the census dates to ensure staff are not dep...