Summary:
Nainital: The Supreme Court has asked the Uttarakhand government to maintain “status quo” and not to evict 57 families of Van Gujjar community living in the buffer zone of Corbett Tiger Reserve. This comes days after Uttarakhand high court slammed the state government for not dislodging the forest dwellers, who it said are living “illegally” in the reserve area.Soon after the high court order, a special leave petition was filed in the apex court by Tarun Joshi, a resident of Ramnagar. There is an inherent contradiction in the stand of the respondent state. At one hand, the respondent state says that the action shall be taken against the persons who have encroached upon the forest land, and in the same breath, it is making a policy to rehabilitate them.”Senior officials from the state forest department refused to comment on the development. After hearing the petitioner, the Supreme Court on September 10 said: “Status quo, as it exists today, shall be maintained by the parties, in the meantime.”The Uttarakhand high court in a series of directions on September 4 and earlier had ordered eviction of the 57 families.On August 16, a division bench headed by acting chief justice of Uttarakhand high court had slammed the state government for its proposal to rehabilitate the forest dwellers.The high court had observed: “Meager compensation is paid to army widows and their family members, but there is a proposal of giving Rs 10 lakh compensation each to all those who have encroached upon forest land and are responsible for depletion of wildlife.”“Prima facie, the proposal taken to rehabilitate Van Gujjars is against the public policy.”The court had stated, “We have never directed the state government to frame and formulate rehabilitation policy..