The Uttarakhand Forest Department after the direction from the Delhi High Court has directed Indian forest service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi to investigate illegal constructions and felling of trees in Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) and submit a report within two weeks.
After Chaturvedi taken the charge as probing officer, the Corbett officers started demolishing the illegal construction and allegedly mislead the prob, said a senior officer of Uttarakhand Forest department.
Chaturvedi is currently the chief conservator of forests and in charge of the state forest research wing. Principal chief conservator of forests (pccf) Rajiv Bhartari ordered the inquiry into the matter after the state government directed him on october 29 to take appropriate action following national tiger conservation authority’s (NTCA) committee submitting its report on the issue on October 22.
Gaurav Bansal, Supreme Court Advocate And Wildlife Activist, on whose petition this matter has unfolded, said ifs officer chaturvedi has been directed to find out the role of the erring officers in the irregularities inside CTR.
“Hoff, Uttarakhand has appointed Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Ifs Officer of Uttarakhand to investigate the role of erring officers who have allowed the illegal construction in the corbett landscape. As per my information, it is a scam of more than Rs 150 crores. Some forest officers of Uttarakhand forest dept have allowed illegal construction within their jurisdiction only for the sake of money. NTCA also in its report has clearly pointed out that construction in pakhro, morghatti, kalaagarh & kugadda range of corbett tiger reserve that was done without financial & technical sanctions.” Bansal said.
On October 27, the Uttarakhand High Court, while taking Suo Motu Cognizance of reports over illegal constructions and felling of trees in CTR, directed the Union Ministry Of Environment, Forest And Climate Change (MOEFCC), Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator Of Forests (PCCF), chief wildlife warden, and CTR field director to look into the allegations and the national tiger conservation authority (ntca) report, and submit an action-taken report to the court by november 9.
Bansal said that on a petition filed by him in Delhi High Court regarding illegal constructions, felling of trees and construction of approach roads in CTR, the court on august 23 had directed NTCA to look into the issues raised in the petition. He said following the court directions, NTCA had constituted a committee on September 5, which inspected CTR between september 26 and 30 and submitted its report on october 22.
Bansal said the NTCA committee found that it seems forest officers of the reserve had forged the government records to allow illegal construction of roads and buildings in CTR. The committee termed the illegal constructions in CTR, one of the tiger habitats with the highest tiger density in the world, is an example of “administrative and managerial failure.”
Bansal said the following the inspection, the NTCA committee not only recommended vigilance inquiry against Uttarakhand forest officers but also recommended MOEFCC to take strong action against the erring forest officers.
Bansal said the main finding of the NTCA committee was that illegal constructions in CTR were going on without any approval and financial sanctions. Instead of building cottages inside CTR, forest officers allowed “illegal constructions of buildings’, no statutory approvals /sanctions were obtained for construction activities on kandi road, morghatti road, pakhrau forest rest house and water body near pakhrau forest rest house.