The State Forest Department avers to have posted personnel even in remote areas to prevent poachers from taking advantage of the situation to poach in areas that have lost road links. However, wildlife activists state that the department is not acting effectively which is why the police arrested one person with two leopard pelts in the Udham Singh Nagar district on Sunday.
It should be mentioned here that the remote forest areas have become all the more difficult to access with roads being damaged in the heavy rains and landslides experienced last month.
Apart from motor roads, 537.29 kilometres of forest roads, 2,653 kms of bridle paths and trekking routes and 58 bridges and culverts of the forest department were also damaged in the disaster. This has made it difficult even for staff to reach the remote forest areas which are rich in wildlife.
Wildlife activists state that as a result of the damage wreaked by the disaster, the forest department needs to strengthen the wildlife security especially in the mountainous regions of the State. The damage to road links is proving conducive for poachers as department staff are unable to reach wildlife rich areas, said one local wildlife activist citing the case of a man from Pithoragarh being arrested with two leopard pelts and one firearm on Sunday.
However, according to the State Chief Wildlife Warden SS Sharma, the department is on an alert across the State. “Our personnel have been posted in areas across the state including the remote areas. Effective communication is being maintained among the staff to ensure that poachers and other wildlife criminals do not take advantage of the situation,” he stressed.
It now remains to be seen whether the department is able to effectively prevent the wildlife criminals from poaching wildlife and harvesting or
smuggling controlled herbs in the biodiversity rich areas of Uttarakhand which have become hard to access due to the damage to approach routes.