Following increasing human habitations along the no man’s land on both sides of the border between India and Nepal in Champawat’s Tanakpur area even the mighty Sharda river that once used to be a perennial source of drinking water for wildlife no longer remains accessible to it (wildlife) as the corridor that used to provide access to the river is virtually blocked by the colonies.
Encroachment along the no man’s land on both sides of the border between India and Nepal in Champawat’s Tanakpur area has virtually blocked free movements of the elephants, said DC Kandpal, SDO, Haldwani forest division’s Sharda range, while talking to The Pioneer.
More so, following increasing human habitations in the said areas even the Sharda river that once used to be a source of drinking water for wildlife no longer remains accessible to it due to increasing human interferences, the SDO added. “Apart from taking up these matters with superior authorities here, we have also taken up the matter with the Nepali officials concerned time and again but of no use,” he further said.
As colonies have come up along the no man’s land in Nepal area, similarly, there has been a lot of encroachment on our side from Tanakpur to Banbasa blocking the movements of elephants, further said the official.
The fact is that as during summer season when water of Sharda river remains low, the elephants easily cross the river to go across the border. But today they can’t move even to drink the water following poor access caused by increasing human habitations, he said, adding, more so, Army camp at Banbasa has only added to the woes of the wild animals.
As the wildlife experts and old hands in Kumaon here maintain, earlier the entire said area of Tanakpur used to represent a densely covered forest area. Now increasing number of colonies on both side of the border have replaced these forests from across the border on both sides.
Thus all the efforts taken for preservation of flora and fauna in Uttarakhand seem to have given way to politics. The matter of fact is that, the wildlife experts here believe, lalkuwan’s Bindu Khatta area where many a number of unauthorised colonies have come up, is no less setback for the wildlife movements particularly elephants.
Similarly, poor efforts on part of the respective Governments to remove the encroachments on both side of the border between Indian and Nepal in Tanakpur has only given that impression. He said that huge crowd of the devotees show that the administration’s effort has yielded desired results as large number of devotees was visiting the site. So far, there has been no major traffic jam on the route. He hoped that the number of devotees would swell in near future.
Despite tall claims of the arrangements by the Yatra administration, the devotees visiting the places are facing inconvenience that became a routine affair due to poor roads. National Highway to Gangotri was blocked at Malpani due to debris on the road on Friday morning. Normalcy of traffic movement was restored when the debris was removed from the road following strenuous efforts by the officials.