Summary:
Nainital: The Uttarakhand high court (HC) on Wednesday directed the state government to submit an affidavit within 10 days on action taken on the formation of ‘State Wildlife Crime Control Bureau’ in Uttarakhand.On February 14, the HC had asked the state government and state forest department to submit its reply as to why 'State Wildlife Crime Bureau' has not been formed despite the state wildlife board approving it in 2016.The call for the establishment of a wildlife crime control bureau emerged after a PIL filed in 2016 had requested the HC’s direction in this regard after five tiger skins and 130 kg of tiger bones, believed to be of the big cats of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, were seized by the special task force (STF).On March 8 this year, the HC had issued a notice to the ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) regarding formation of a state wildlife crime control bureau and progress made in the formation of ‘Special Tiger Protection Force’ in Uttarakhand.The petition requested the court to take ‘appropriate action towards conservation of the national animal and initiate steps to ensure check on anti-conservation activities in the state’.In April 2017, Uttarakhand forest minister Harak Singh Rawat had directed the head of forest force (HoFF) to initiate an inquiry into the matter pertaining to seizure of five tiger skins and sought a report within one month.Rawat had also said that the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) would be roped in for monitoring tigers in Corbett and verify the facts on missing or dead big cats.Meanwhile in another case, the high court issued notices to municipal bodies of Haldwani, Nainital and Ramnagar after two residents of Nainital filed a petition seeking re-opening of slaughter houses that are complying with the required norms.Both the petitioners who are meat traders, alleged that they had to buy meat from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to run their business which they alleged was incurring heavy losses..