Ramesh letter sparks off protest in Uttarakhand

Jairam’s letter on death of tiger in Corbett provides ammunition to local BJP leaders to initiate a public movement against him.

Updated on: Feb 3, 2011, 24:34:18 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

It is Environment minister Jairam Ramesh versus Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal over killing of a tiger, claimed to be man-eater, near Corbett tiger reserve.

Ramesh on Tuesday asked the state government to impose section 144 of Code for Criminal Procedure (prevents gathering of more than four people) where tiger attacks a person to ensure safe capture of animal. On Wednesday, the locals decided to stage a demonstration against Ramesh, assisted by local BJP leaders, against the suggestion.

“How can we prevent people from gathering at a site where a tiger attacks a villager,” said a state government functionary. And, added that tiger conservation cannot be done sitting in the air-conditioned offices in Delhi.

Pokhriyal has so far not agreed to Ramesh’s suggestion of a joint inspection of Corbett and nearby areas. According to officials, many of the suggestions made by the union minister were not implementable.

Another twist in the controversy has emerged as instead of relocating the Sunderkhal village from the buffer zone of the Corbett as suggested by Ramesh, the state forest department, headed by CM, has demanded a study to examine presence of four to five tigers near the village.

“It is an unusual behaviour,” said Anil Baluni, vice-chairperson of State Forest and Environment Advisory Board, who claimed that they four to five tigers have been caught on camera near the village.

Tiger being a territorial animal has an area of about 10 sq kms and another tiger can enter the area only after killing the present there. “We want National Tiger Conservation Authority’s suggestion on how to deal with this situation,” Baluni said.

Jairam Ramesh has asked the state government to immediately send a proposal for seeking 100 % assistance to relocate Sunderkhal village, which is there since 1974. At least five persons of this village, in buffer zone of the reserve, were mauled to death by a tiger, killed last week, in a month’s time.

Coming down strongly on the state government for brutally killing the tiger, Ramesh has suggested that two units of rapid response units should be set up to capture the animal to avoid lethal encounters.

To overcome the problem of increasing tiger population in Corbett and reduce man-animal conflict, Ramesh has suggested that parts of Lansdowne, West Terai and Ramnagar divisions should be declared as buffer of Corbett. He also wants the state government to monitor movement of tigers and killing cattle by them to avoid conflict.

The minister has also said that the state government should appoint Brijendra Singh, as honorary wildlife warden for Corbett for appropriate guidance. Singh in the recent past had been critical of officials at Corbett on management of the reserve.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.