Bhubaneswar: Uttarakhand's principal chief conservator of forests has said media can be the best friend of foresters.

Monish Mullick was speaking during the valedictory session of a five-day training programme on "Art of Interacting with Print and Electronic media" in Xavier Institute of Management in the city.

The training, sponsored by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change, was attended by 22 senior forest officers from 16 states. It concluded on Friday.

Programme co-ordinator Niraj Kumar, who is a professor at Development Management Institute, Patna, said participants were exposed about the benefits of engaging media for better governance.

Sessions facilitated by the working journalists, senior officers and media experts were so planned that officers could not only know the working of journalists, but also learn some of the skills of effective and useful media engagements.

Millo Tasser, an officer from Arunachal Pradesh, said: "In the Northeast, we have never considered media a possible friend in governance, but the training has changed my attitude towards it."

Rajesh Jain from Rajasthan was impressed by the cases discussed during the training and was of opinion that learning from it would change their relation with the media.

Kumar said a team of forest officers, police officer, journalists and academia proved very effective for this training. Encouraged by the response, he said such trainings in every state was need of the time and he was going to request the ministry for the same.