CEC member blames Corbett admin, forest dept for delayed action in illegal constructions in tiger reserve

A member of the Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee has held the Corbett administration and the state forest department responsible for delayed action in stopping illegal constructions and felling of trees in the tiger reserve.

In a supplementary report submitted to the apex court earlier this month, CEC member Mahendra Vyas said, "It is hard to believe that the illegalities that have taken place in Corbett were without the knowledge of senior officer posted in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) or in the headquarters at Dehradun."

It becomes even more unbelievable when viewed in the light of the fact that the "development works" were being widely publicised through the electronic and the print media as the ones undertaken for the benefit of the people of Kotdwar, the report said.

In July 2021, the Corbett Tiger Reserve's director received a complaint alleging that illegal felling and cutting of trees was taking place using earthmoving machines in the Pakhrau range but instead of taking prompt action in the matter, the complaint was forwarded in a routine manner to a junior officer, it said.

Action in the matter was taken in September after a leading english daily published a report about large scale felling of trees in Corbett on its front page, Vyas said in his supplementary report submitted earlier this month.

Non-forestry activities and illegal constructions of a tiger safari in Pakhrau, more than a dozen tourist cottages, roads, bridges and excavations for creating water bodies in Corbett had resulted in "reckless destruction" of pristine forest habitat, he said.

He said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the regional office of the Ministry of Forest Environment and Climate Change had to do a postmortem after the damage had been done.

Vyas said illegal constructions have also been made in core critical tiger habitat of the CTR, particularly in Dhikala, Khinanauli, Gairal, and Dhangarhi gate, and recommended that the NTCA should examine such reports and submit a report to the court within a specific time limit.

He also recommended that directions should be issued to identify and demolish all remaining illegal structures in the CTR in a timebound manner.

The CEC member said the NTCA may consider reviewing and withdrawing the 2019 guidelines on the location of tiger safari in buffer zones of tiger reserves.