The High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital has directed the Central Government to declare a national forest policy in order to ensure the protection of forests and wildlife within a period of six months along with drafting a policy for increasing the area of land under forest cover. Calling for amendments in the forest laws, the court has further said that provision be made for more stringent punishment, even life imprisonment for wildlife poachers.
According to information received, the High Court of Uttarakhand also stated that policy related to forests at the United Nations Conferene on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro should also be observed. The High Court also directed that 10 kilometre area around Corbett national park and other national parks and wildlife sanctuaries be declared eco-sensitive in addition to which any building construction or road construction should not be undertaken. While also issuing direction regarding the declaration of wild animals including tiger and leopards as man-eaters, the High Court also directed that photograph of any dead animal should not be published in the print media or displayed in front of electronic media. The High Court further directed that in case of a wild animal turning out to be a man-eater, the case will be presented before the state chief secretary and committee concerned before the animal is officially declared a man-eater. On the matter of accidental deaths of wild animals on railway tracks, the court directed the railways that electrified system be facilitated along the railway track inside Rajaji national park. The court also directed that necessary amendments be made in the forest laws to make provision for harsher penalty—up to life imprisonment for the poachers of wild life. Instructions were also issued for making provision from the next financial year for necessary funds to protect the forests from fires. Further, the availability of adequate quantity of water should also be ensured for fighting forest fires, the court instructed. In addition to increasing the number of personnel int he National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force for tackling forest fires, the court further directed that Van Gujjars and others encroaching on forest lands should be evicted.
The court also directed that in the next financial year, 10,000 fire safety workers be appointed prior to the summer season in order to mitigate forest fires.
In case of failure to control the forest fire within 24 hours, the divisional forest officer should be suspended. Similarly, in case of failure to extinguish forest fire within 48 hours the conservator of forests should be suspended and in case of the forest fire still not being extinguished in 71 hours, the chief conservator of forests should be suspended, the court instructed. In order to ensure observance of the orders issued by the court, the chief secretary and forest secretary have been directed to ensure the same. The matter was heard in the division bench of chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Alok Singh.