The high profile group caught partying with guns, meat and 171 bottles of liquor without valid permit on the compound of the Kolhuchaud forest rest house at Kodwar in Pauri district has raised serious questions at the level of wildlife security in Uttarakhand. Activists question how the group was blatantly violating the law with the forest department turning a blind eye in an area which is known for its rich wildlife from tigers to elephants.
Records show that the state forest department has for some years been making developments in some aspects but it has continued to lag in the vital need for implementing the law when it comes to bashes by influential and loaded people wishing to violate the regulations as part of celebrations on New Year’s eve and other occasions. In 2013, the Animal Welfare Board of India co-opted member Gauri Maulekhi had written to the Corbett tiger reserve director complaining about tourists being allowed to have a free run of the CTR seriously jeopardising the safety and sanctity of the park. She had stated then, “Builders, industrialists and bureaucrats apart from relatives and friends of officers of various department and miscellaneous ministers and their friends, families, extended families and friends of friends are all being allowed to take their private vehicles in the park. Moreover, once they have bypassed one rule they tend to break all others by getting off vehicles in prohibited zones and loitering in the wildlife habitat, not being accompanied by a registered nature guide, littering in the park, consuming alcohol, cooking and consuming meat in the park apart from a raucous in Corbett and disturbing wildlife.” The complain was accompanied with photographs of a visible standing outside his private vehicle at the core zone of Dhikala range in Corbett. The person pictured with his Delhi-registered vehicle was alighting from his vehicle at a prohibited place in Corbett with a herd of wild elephants nearby.