Summary:
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Wednesday sought a ‘factual status report’ from chief wildlife warden JS Suhag on granting permission to Garhwal Motors Union Limited to operate bus service on the Pakhro-Morghatti-Kalagarh-Ramnagar (Kandi Road) stretch.
The Uttarakhand forest department`s approval for plying buses through the core area of the Corbett reserve irked the wildlife authorities.
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The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Wednesday sought a ‘factual status report’ from chief wildlife warden JS Suhag on granting permission to Garhwal Motors Union Limited to operate bus service on the Pakhro-Morghatti-Kalagarh-Ramnagar (Kandi Road) stretch.
The Uttarakhand forest department`s approval for plying buses through the core area of the Corbett reserve irked the wildlife authorities.
The director of Corbett Tiger Reserve, Rahul, on Wednesday gave the permission for operating a bus service on the stretch following the orders of the chief wildlife warden.
The communication, duly signed by NTCA deputy inspector general (Rajendra G Garawad, reads, “It is requested that a factual status report of the aforementioned subject violation of Section 38 (V) and Section 38 (O) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 -- may be provided to this authority at the earliest.”
The complaint against this move of the forest department was brought before the NTCA by Bhanu Bansal, founder of Centre for Wildlife and Environmental Litigation Foundation, on December 21.
The announcement of the bus service was made by forest minister Harak Singh Rawat on December 18 despite the past controversies that revolved around the construction of the Kandi Road.
Another activist-cum-advocate, Gaurav Bansal, has sent a legal notice to the chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand forest department JS Suhag on Wednesday, alleging that the move to ply buses is in violation of the Supreme Court orders -- that came on a writ petition (civil) No 47 of 1998 titled Navin M.
Raheja Vs Union of India & Others.
While deciding on the road connectivity from Ramnagar to Kotdwar, the apex court had observed that ‘it is the duty of the state to preserve and protect the Corbett National Park, which is a national asset’, and also act according to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
According to Bansal, Section 38 (V) (4) (i) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act-1972 has also been violated as it mandates that core areas -- like the present one (Kandi Road) -- are required to be kept as inviolate for the purpose of tiger conservation.
In the present case, it is interference with the ‘inviolate area’, he added.
Under Section 38 (O) of WPA, NTCA has to ensure that a tiger reserve or an area linking one protected area or tiger reserve with another protected area or tiger reserve is ‘not diverted for ecologically unsustainable uses’.