Centre’s committee finds huge irregularities in Pakhro Tiger Safari project

Committee’s report holds that the then Forest Minister and several department officials participated in the destruction of the park’s landscape and habitat, including felling of over 6,000 trees

A team formed by the Central government on the orders of the NGT to investigate the ‘illegal tree cutting’ in Corbett national park of Uttarakhand, in its report submitted to the green court, maintained that the then Forest Minister of the State, Harak Singh Rawat, and several senior forest department officials participated in the destruction of the landscape and habitat of the national park. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

A team formed by the Central government on the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to investigate the ‘illegal tree cutting’ in Corbett national park of Uttarakhand, in its report submitted to the green court, maintained that the then Forest Minister of the State, Harak Singh Rawat, and several senior forest department officials participated in the destruction of the landscape and habitat of the national park.

In the report submitted to the court on February 24, a copy of which was accessed by The Hindu, the committee maintained that “it is evident that the officers were going overboard in getting the works done in whatever way possible in total violation of rules and regulations”.

The committee also recommended that “Suitable Disciplinary and Legal Action” should be taken against the erring officials so that this case becomes an “example for future”.

Besides the former Minister, the report named Jabar Singh Suhag (the then Chief Wildlife Warden), Sushant Patnaik (Chief Conservator Of Forest, Garhwal), Rahul (the then Director, Corbett), Akhilesh Tiwari (District Forest Officer), Kishan Chandra (DFO Kalagarh), Mathura Singh Mavdi (the then Forest Range Officer), Braj Vihari Sharma (the then Forest Range Officer), L.R. Nag (the then SDO) and Uttarakhand Government officers who issued financial sanctions before the final Stage II clearance.

“Going by the reports, documents, and inspections it is clear that the officers of Corbett National Park had scant respect for and acts, rules, regulations, and guidelines and behaved in the most irresponsible manner in the extant case. It is concluded that the officials at various levels were involved in implementing the non-approved works. They have blatantly violated the provisions of Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act, Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Act, guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority, administrative and financial rules of Uttarakhand Govt, etc,” the report stated.

The report also observed that there has been a felling of trees beyond the stipulated number of 163 in the approval for the tiger safari. The work for the safari was started without Stage II approval under Forest Conservation Act 1980. The authorities in Uttarakhand never submitted the revised Detailed Project Report as asked for by the Central Zoo Authority, which resulted into execution of works without proper approval of CZA.

FSI investigation

On October 21 last year, the NGT asked the Central government to form a committee to investigate the matter of illegal felling of trees in Corbett after taking suo moto cognizance of a report published in The Hindu on October 2, 2022. The news article quoted a report from the Forest Survey Of India (FSI) that said over 6,000 trees were illegally cut to make way for the Pakhru tiger safari project in Corbett Reserve, as against the permission obtained for 163 trees.

The matter was initially highlighted by Gaurav Bansal, an environmental activist, and lawyer based in Delhi. Mr. Bansal has made a complaint to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in which he alleged that 10,000 trees were cut in the protected area.

Based on the complaint, the State had asked the FSI to access the number of trees felled in the designated area inside the tiger reserve. After compiling the report in around nine months in Pakhru block, Kalushaheed block, Nalkhatta block, and Kalagarh block, the FSI has come up with an observation that the area cleared under CTR is estimated as 16.21 hectares. The trees estimated in the cleared area are 6,093 in number with a lower bound of 5,765 and the upper bound of 6,421 with 95% confidence interval and 2.72% standard error.

Sprawling over 500 sq. km, CTR is home to 230 tigers and has the world’s highest tiger density — at 14 tigers per 100 sq.km.

Mr. Rawat had laid the foundation stone of the Pakhro tiger safari, which would be operated in the Pakhro zone of CTR in the Lansdowne area of Pauri Garhwal. Spread over an area of 106 hectares, when completed, it would have been the State’s first tiger safari that would have tigers in enclosures to ensure “100% sighting”.