Corbett Tiger Reserve: Probe Over Illegal Cutting Of 10,000 Trees Continue

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that officials have been removed from their posts and an investigation is underway into allegations of illegal cutting of thousands of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Last month, Kalagarh forest division Range Officer Brij Bihari Sharma was suspended on charges of illegal felling of trees in the Pakhrau and the Morghatti ranges in Uttarakhand and misusing his post.

Sharma has been charged with indulging in illegal felling of trees in the area without taking prior approval of authorities.

BCCL

Earlier this month, Ramon Magsaysay award recipient IFS officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi had withdrawn himself from probing the role of officials in illegal constructions ad tree cuttings in CTR.

In a letter to Head of Forest Force Rajiv Bhartari, he said though he had investigated "hundreds" of corruption cases, never did his "very appointment to probe a case evoke the kind of nervousness, fear, confusion and apprehension as in this case".

Bhartari had assigned Chaturvedi the responsibility of probing the illegal constructions in the reserve on November 2 after being authorised by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to fix charges against officials involved and act against them.

"I have conducted probes into hundreds of corruption cases in my career, in which the biggest leaders of parties in power and senior bureaucrats were accused, earning the appreciation of institutions like the CBI, the CVC and parliamentary panels, but never did my very appointment to probe a case evoke the kind of nervousness, fear, confusion and apprehension as in this case," Chaturvedi had said in his letter.

BCCL

Soon after Chaturvedi was assigned the responsibility of the probe, the Corbett administration began demolishing the illegally erected structures in the Kalagarh Forest Division, including the Pakhro and the Morghatti forest zones, on November 6.

Four houses under construction in the Morghatti forest area without clearance of authorities of the reserve have been razed as part of the exercise.

BCCL

Following the withdrawal of Chaturvedi, a vigilance probe was ordered into the alleged role of officials in the illegal constructions carried out in the buffer zone.

The trees were cut for a tiger safari in the protected area, which would make it easier for tourists to spot the big cats.

For this, the state had said that 163 trees would have to be cut.

But according to Supreme Court advocate and activist Gaurav Bansal, over 10,000 trees have been cut illegally for the project.

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