Meerut: National Green Tribunal ( NGT ) has directed the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) to visit the Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary and provide status report on the issue of violation of environmental laws in the sanctuary.Principal Bench of NGT headed by Justice RS Rathore in its Monday order observed, “UP as well as NBWL and NBA have done nothing for the protection of ecology and biodiversity of Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary.”Further the Tribunal also directed secretary, UP Bio Diversity Board and chief wildlife warden to appear before the court with full information and details.The bench gave the order in response to a petition filed by an advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who highlighted the presence of industrial activity within the wildlife precincts posing danger to wildlife. “In my petition, I had presented a report of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) that clearly stated endangered species such as swamp deer and hog deer were at risk due to high human presence and forest fires in the sanctuary,” Bansal said.The report further stated, “A large portion of Hastinapur sanctuary lies within very high human use area. Instead of diluting efforts in managing a large wildlife sanctuary that is predominantly under human use, management interventions should focus on intensively managing these identified critical wildlife habitats. On this basis I had petitioned the Tribunal to safeguard ecology of the sanctuary.”Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary is spread over a 2,074 square km and is divided into five districts of western UP — Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Amroha and Ghaziabad. The river Ganga also flows through the region.

Stay updated with all the Meerut Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.