Jalpaiguri: The state forest department has decided to change its colour theme from red and green to blue and green.

A senior official of the department has "informally" communicated the decision earlier this week to foresters through a Whatsapp message, asking them to make the changes in sign boards of the department and finish the process in a fortnight.

"All the officers of the forest directorate are hereby directed to change the colour of the sign boards of forest from Red and Green to Blue and Green. Simply replace the red colour to blue. This exercise must be completed within a fortnight. All the sign boards which are on roads should be changed first within a week .... (sic)" reads the message purportedly sent by the official to foresters through Whatsapp. It also mentions that "all boards means all boards from beat offices to range offices division offices circle offices and road side sign boards.......this should be given top most priority (sic)."

Forest sources said that for several years, the department's colour theme has been red and green. "Green indicates the forest and its conservation and red denotes an authority that is entitled to protect the forests and wildlife and also to take legal steps. We fail to understand what has suddenly led to change the colour theme," said a forest official here.

According to foresters, there are around 1,500-odd offices of the department in the state with sign boards. Also, thousands of boards, festoons, banners and hoardings can be found along the roads and in forest areas.

"The department is not entitled to spend more than Rs 10 lakh on a scheme. This is an additional expenditure at a time chief minister Mamata Banerjee is insisting on curtailing costs," an official said.

N.K. Pandey, the principal chief conservator of forests of the state and the head of forest force, declined comment.