The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the former Uttarakhand forest minister Harak Singh Rawat and then divisional forest officer Kishan Chand for felling of trees on a mass scale to construct buildings illegally under the pretext of promotion of tourism in Corbett Tiger Reserve. The court also also permitted establishment of a Tiger Safari at the Corbett National Park in peripheral and buffer zones of the reserved forest. However, the court said that we are permitting the establishment of tiger safari but subject to our directions issued in the operative part of the judgment.
The court said that in the present case it is clear beyond doubt that the then forest minister had considered themselves as beyond law and it shows how Kishan Chand had thrown the public trust doctrine to the waste bin. The bench said that the illicit felling of trees and damage to the forest shows how nexus between politicians and bureaucrats has resulted in heavy environmental damage.
"We are amazed at the audacity of the forest minister and Chand to have committed this. We are sure many others are involved. Since the CBI is probing this we are not saying anything more." the bench said.
The case pertains to Rawat's tenure as the cabinet minister in the BJP goverment lead by CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. Rawat returned to the Congress in 2022 ahead of the state assembly polls after being dismissed from the BJP-led state cabinet and the primary membership of the party for alleged "anti-party activities."
The court said that it will continue to monitor the case and asked the CBI to submit a report within six months on delinquent officers. The court also said that the state cannot run away from the responsibility of restoring the status of the forest from when damage was done and recover it from the ones who committed the damage.
In Februrary 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at multiple locations linked to Rawat as part of its money laundering investigation in connection with this forest scam case.
The judgment is on a petition filed by environmental activist and lawyer Gaurav Bansal who challenged the Uttarakhand government’s proposal to have a tiger safari, a specialised zoo with caged animals, at the national park. In 2021, Bansal had challenged illegal constructions, felling of trees and constructions in CTR.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice PK Mishra delivered the verdict today.
Earlier the court had reserved its verdict while maintaining that no animal from the zoo should be permitted to be brought into the wild unless they are being rescued or rehabilitated due to injury, old-age, or if they are orphaned or man-eater tigers involved in man-animal conflict.
According to the plan, the safari envisaged animals from the zoo to be brought into the wild and kept in cages for purposes of tourism.
In 2023, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court recommended “appropriate action” against Harak Singh Rawat after issuing a notice to him in connection this case.
The CEC report said that the Rawat was instrumental in the planning and execution of illegal and unauthorised roads and buildings within the Corbett Tiger Reserve and in the Lansdowne Division and supervised the illegal works executed by Kishan Chand, the then DFO (Kalagarh). Chand was then suspended in April 2022 and later was arrested on December 23, 2022.
According to a report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) over 6,000 trees were felled for the proposed Pakhro Tiger Safari project in CTR over an area of 16.21 hectares.