Maharashtra Shuffles 3 IAS Officers, Sanjay Khandare Named Forests ACS

The Maharashtra government on Monday, 5 October 2026, transferred three IAS officers and assigned senior bureaucrat Sanjay Khandare to the post of Additional Chief Secretary of the Forest Department, in a reshuffle approved by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The orders were issued by the General Administration Department (GAD).

The move brings a change at the top of the state’s forest administration, with Khandare shifting from the Tourism Department to the Forest Department at Mantralaya, Mumbai. In his new role as Additional Chief Secretary (Forests), he will be responsible for forest administration, conservation and related policy matters at the state secretariat.

Khandare, an IAS officer of the 1996 batch from the Rajasthan cadre (IAS:RR:1996), had been serving as Additional Chief Secretary of the Tourism Department at Mantralaya before the transfer. His replacement in tourism is Sanjay Yadav, a 2009-batch officer from the State Civil Services cadre (IAS:SCS:2009), who has been moved from his previous assignment as State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, Mumbai, and posted as Secretary (Tourism), Tourism Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai.

The third officer affected by the order is Vaishnavi B, an IAS officer of the 2019 batch (IAS:RR:2019), who has been appointed Additional Divisional Commissioner, Nagpur Division, Nagpur. Prior to this, her last recorded posting was Additional Municipal Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation.

The reshuffle is limited to these three officers. While Khandare and Yadav continue to be based at Mantralaya, Vaishnavi B is the only officer in the set of transfers moving to a divisional posting in Nagpur.

The changes were reported by Mid-Day with inputs from PTI, along with state media citing the GAD order.