The Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board (UPCB), Haldwani, is going to tighten the noose on the hoteliers and resort- owners located along the Koshi and other rivers and adjacent areas in the highly sensitive Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) area following the complaint of alleged disposal of the civic wastes by these commercial establishments into the river Koshi that serves as the main drinking water source for wildlife species.
We have received some complaints in this regard suggesting alleged disposal of civic wastes by these hoteliers and resort-owners into therivers. Therefore, we are seriously planning to examine the fact that whether the said commercial establishments maintain any proper civic waste disposal system or not, said P K Joshi, Regional Officer, UPCB, Haldwani, while talking to The Pioneer.
It is a serious matter if the water of the river is being polluted in such a way. Therefore, soon all the hotels and resorts located along the river bank will be under the scanner, Joshi added.
It is worth mention here that rapid urbanization around this highly sensitive CTR and adjacent forest areas have virtually blocked the access of the wild animals to the Koshi river, as the wildlife experts here maintain.
With no specific laws to restrict the construction works in this area, new resorts and hotels continue to come up on the afore said protected zone causing an adverse impact on the wildlife, they add. The interesting fact is that , as the wildlife experts have maintained here, the koshi river has not only served as a perennial source of drinking water to the wild animals but also as a long walking corridor for giant animals like elephants which always prefer to go on long walk.
But forest officials concerned on the condition of anonymity State that perhaps keeping in view the adverse impact on flora and fauna in this CTR zone of late, the Government of India last year tried to declare the CTR as eco-sensitive zone.
However, following the mounting pressures from certain areas, the entire exercise had to be stopped in the name of protecting interests of the local people. Now only the time will tell how this protected tiger reserve would be saved from increasing human interference into wildlife affairs, the wildlife experts here say.
It is also to note that following increasing human encroachment into wild habitats, as the wildlife experts inform, of late the Government also tried to revive certain corridors like the Gola elephant corridor stretching from Ramnagar-Haldwani to Nepal border. But nothing has moved forward.