U'khand govt sacks Corbett chief, 2 IFS officers over illegal construction

By Asheesh Goyal
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], April 28 : Taking up stern action on the complaints of illegal constructions and felling of trees in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) area, the Uttarakhand government on Wednesday suspended two IFS officers and removed the director of the wildlife sanctuary from his position.
The orders were issued by forest Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu yesterday.
According to the order, JS Suhag, former chief wildlife warden and current chief executive officer (CAMPA) and Kishan Chand, former divisional forest officer of Kalagarh Tiger Reserve, were suspended by the state government.
In addition, CTR director Rahul was removed from his post and attached to the office principal chief conservator of forests, Dehradun.
During the tenure of Harak Singh Rawat, who served as the forest minister in the previous BJP government, construction works were done against the rules of Corbett National Park and illegal felling of trees was also done.
Following this, the investigation team of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) caught the disturbance by conducting an on-site inspection of this matter.
It is worth mentioning that the construction of Kandi road under Corbett National Park, construction of buildings in Morghatti, Pakhri forest rest house complex, a reservoir near Pakhrau forest rest house, illegal felling of trees in proposed tiger safari at Pakhrau and Indian Forest Act, 1927.
An enquiry report was submitted last year by the investigation team of NTCA regarding violation of the Forest (Protection) Act, 1980, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and financial rules. Referring to the irregularities committed in the Corbett Tiger Reserve, instructions have been given to take action against the guilty officers.