Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has alleged that Principal Secretary – Forest AP Shrivastava had misguided the Central Government over the issue of permission of tiger safari in two tiger reserves of the State Bandhavgarh and Pench.
With this allegation, Dubey has knocked the doors of Madhya Pradesh High Court (MPHC) that would hear the issue on Wednesday.
While talking over the issue to The Pioneer, Dubey said that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had called a meeting on August 24, 2015 to discuss the proposal of Madhya Pradesh Government regarding participation of private sector in wildlife conservation in unproductive forest areas outside National Parks and Sanctuaries.
The meet was held at Indira Paryavaran Bhawan – New Delhi and was chaired by Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife) and was also attended by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Narendra Kumar, PCCF – Wildlife Ravi Shrivastava, Ravindra Nath Saxena also from Madhya Pradesh, CEO Ecotourism MP Vinay Varman, CCF & FD Kanha Tiger Reserve JS Chauhan, CCF & SO Anil K Upadhay, Manager Project Ecotourism Board MP Varsha Singh Parihar, besides representatives of IUCN and others.
Dubey said that the then Principal Secretary Forest made a presentation in the meeting on the rejuvenating degraded forests to create secure habitat for dispersal of tigers and developing eco tourism on PPP mode.
PS explained that this concept is compatible with management of human wildlife conflict as the rescued and captured animals responsible for conflict can be released in such areas.
He alleged that the PS provided wrong information that such safaris have already been permitted by NTCA in two Tiger Reserves, Bandhavgarh and Pench.
It was explained that to begin with this concept is proposed to be adopted by MPFD Corporation for which exemption is available in FC Act.
He said that NTCA never permitted safaris for the Bandhavgarh and Pench as claimed by PS during an important meeting. The proposal for Pench was deferred by the technical committee of NTCA on January 28, 2015 whereas the proposal for Bandhavgarh was not even sent because its tiger conservation plan has not been prepared till now and without that this proposal could not be applied for, he added.
The wildlife activist said to expose this lie of the then PS we have knocked doors of the court that would decide the fate of liars.