Haryana Government on Friday decided to convert the area of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary in district Sirsa into Community Reserve. The Government hopes the move will ensure participation of local people in conservation of wildlife of this area and simultaneously it will also clear the way for development works.
The decision was taken in the first meeting of State Board for Wildlife of Haryana held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday. The matter of denotification in this regard would be placed before the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Amarinder Kaur apprised the Chief Minister that the Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary was notified by the State Government in 1987 having total area of 28,492 acres. The Century covers eleven villages. The village Panchayats of all eleven villages have given a resolution to denotify the Sanctuary in 2009. As any construction and developmental works are prohibited in area of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary, local people and the administration has to face lots of difficulty and no development is taking place in this area.
On this, Hooda agreed to convert the area into Community Reserve. He said that Black Buck and Nilgai are found in this area therefore this area had been reserved as Wildlife Sanctuary. He said that its conversion into Community Reserve would ensure participation of local people in conservation of wildlife and it will also clear the way for development works as all decision related to development works would be taken in the committee of local people. Hooda has given approval for the recommendation to be forwarded for the conversion of this place as community reserve to the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife.
The proposal for wildlife clearance for four-laning of Yamunanagar-Panchkula section of NH-344, proposal for establishing petrol pumps in the area of Abubshehar Wildlife Sanctuary, proposal for plots located in IT Park, Sector 22, district Panchkula and proposal for laying Optical Fiber Cable from Telephone Exchange Yamunanagar to Paonta on NH-73 was deliberated in the meeting and it has been decided that all matters would also be forwarded to the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife for its consideration and approval.
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, SS Dhillon, Deputy Principal Secretary, RS Doon, Principal Secretary, Forests, Dheera Khandelwal, Principal Secretary, Public Works (Building and Roads) Department, Sanjeev Kaushal along with other senior officers of Forest Department and representatives of NGOs were also present in the meeting.
