Wildlife and Right To Information (RTI) activist Ajay Dubey alleged that the State forest department has failed to check hunting of tigers and leopards. He said that that illegal mining and illegal felling of trees were going on unbridled.
Dubey while addressing mediapersons here on Sunday said, “The statistics of the department for the last one year make it clear that the forest department is adopting negligence in stopping hunting of tigers in the state.”
Dubey further said that the forest minister has miserably failed to take action against the officers responsible in cases of hunting. Accountability of guilty officials has not been fixed as per the instructions of Government of India. Enquiries against the accused officers are going on since last ten years, he added.
He said that the forest department did not pay any heed to the proposal of central government to constitute special tiger protection force with 100 per cent financial assistance since 2009. Since last many years’ 500 posts of rangers, deputy rangers, forest guards and mahouts are lying vacant in six tiger reserves of the state, he added.
The wildlife activist said that the forest department is very weak in getting guilty of hunting convicted. Only four persons have been convicted since 2002. Cases of tiger hunting are lying pending in the courts of state due to poor prosecution of the forest department. In most of the cases the forest officials back offs from their earlier statements, he added.
He said that as per the Supreme Court order dated April 15, 2013 lions from Gujarat were to be brought in Kuno within six months but afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the BJP government of the state condemn the apex court order and could not brought lions till date to the state.
He said that due to the failure of state in stopping hunting and losing credibility Orissa did not sent a white tiger couple to the state despite chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s letter in this regard. Karnataka has not given elephants till now, he added.