The ongoing agitation by the employees from different Government department, including the forest department, that has badly affected the public delivery system, now also seems to have an adverse impact on the wildlife protection measures.
The fact is that with employees from different Government departments taking to street in a mass scale for many days in protest against their long pending demands, the State forest department has now taken assistance from the police to launch joint patrolling in vulnerable locations, including the long and open international border with Nepal in Udham Singh Nagar's Khatima area, in association with the local police concerned.
"In view of the ongoing agitation by the employees we have hired enforcement staff, including the ex-army men to meet shortage of staff and more importantly, to maintain wildlife protection measures," Vivek Pandey, Conservator of Forest (CF), western circle, told The Pioneer.
"As part of these wildlife protection measures, we have started joint enforcement drive along the international border with Nepal in Udham Singh Nagar's Khatima area now in collaboration with the police concerned," Pandey further said.
"The fact is that as and when there is a need we seek assistance from the police and the joint patrolling has been quite effective to control anti-wildlife activities in this region," the CF, western circle maintained.
A long open international border with Nepal, this terai landscape has been very vulnerable to anti-wildlife activities of late and the employees' ongoing agitation has only added to its vulnerability.
The protest by the employees has not only hit the routine patrolling drive but also tourism activities particularly in the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Ramnagar. Though later the agitating employees from the CTR agreed to allow the tourist activities, at the initial stage of this agitation many a number of tourists who had got advance booking to visit the CTR through online had to return with a bad experience due to the strike.
As the tourist season has already commenced so the possibility of anti-wildlife activities like poaching can't be ruled out even during this period. Keeping in view these concerns caused by the ongoing agitation by thousands of employees from different departments, the State forest department has taken the police support to strengthen its routine patrolling on the long and porous border with Nepal in Udham Singh Nagar's Khatima area.
Besides, the State forest department has also hired ex-army men and others to meet the shortage of at least field staff which is crucial from enforcement as well as patrolling point of view in sensitive forest locations.