Summary:
When TOI contacted the NHAI office in Uttarakhand, a senior official said, “The project could not be completed due to some internal problems. The contract awarded to the firm expired in May this year and NHAI has already invited bidding with a deadline of 2019 to finish the project.” CWEL general secretary Bhanu Bansal referring to a research paper, “Losing Times for the Tiger”, said, “The entire nation needs to focus on this corridor. We found that despite the availability of adequate and timely ecological information and assessment, all projects failed to progress because of multiple institutional failures.”The project was awarded to a firm in 2010 by NHAI and MoEF&CC. The research paper by eminent wildlife scientists states that the ‘case of Chila Motichur corridor is an acid test for the Indian conservation movement.’ Despite recommendations to recover the habitat for nearly three decades, tiger population in the north western ranges remained threatened..