Monday, 19 October 2020 | Archana Jyoti | New Delhi
Citing forest laws, the Centre has rejected the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government’s plans to temporarily divert a patch of Rajaji National Park forest area in Uttarakhand for the construction of housing, toilets and parking facilities for the Haridwar Maha Kumbh pilgrims. The mega religious congregation is slated for early next year.
Calling it as “an exceptional case” the Uttarakhand Forest Department had sought the Union Environment Ministry’s nod to the transfer of 778 hectares of Rajaji National Park and Narendra Nagar Forest Division to the Kumbh Mela Samiti in order to initiate “temporary” construction for the devotees to the Maha Kumbh Mela.
The Rawat Government had initially estimated the arrival of 10 crore pilgrims to the Kumbh but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, officials now expect around 4 crore pilgrims to the holy town.
The temporary diversion of the Rajaji National Park was meant to ensure that pilgrims do not have any problems during the event. The State Government had sought a proposed area of the national park to remain with the Kumbh Mela Samiti for over nine months, from September 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021.
However, the Ministry returned the proposal.
It said that the current laws do not permit such diversion of forest areas for non-forest purposes.
Refusing to list it to be taken up for discussion by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) members, it pointed out that Rajaji National Park is a tiger reserve with a significant population of tigers and its use for non-forest purposes is in clear violation of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
“Not an inch of any National Park can be put to use for non-forest purposes. Section 35 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act clearly forbids any such activity in a protected area,” according to Ritwick Dutta, environment lawyer and founder of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE). Protected area refers to a National Park, a sanctuary, a conservation reserve or a community reserve notified by the State government.
Wildlife activists were already up in arms against the proposal which they said is in blatant violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 both of which stress on how forest zones are inviolate and that forest land cannot be diverted under any circumstances.
On its part, the State Forest Department has already started radio-collaring the elephants in the region to prevent man-animal conflict and keep them away from the 100-odd ghats in the holy town during the Maha Kumbh.
However, an official from the Uttarakhand Forest Department said that radio-collaring of 10 elephants is proposed to study their movement, as they usually stray in areas of human habitation.
According to an estimate, the Jumbo numbers have increased in the state and so have man-elephant conflicts. In June, according to the elephant Census conducted earlier this year, the number of elephants in the state had reached 2,026, up from the 1,839 elephants in 2017.
