New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday imposed a ban on tiger safari at Uttarakhand's Jim Corbett National Park. The decision, however, permits safaris in the peripheral and buffer zones.
The court has come down heavily on former Uttarakhand Minister Harath Singh Rawat and DFO Kishan Chand for permitting extensive tree felling, causing significant damage to the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
The court has directed the state to calculate the cost of this ecological damage and recover it from those responsible. Notably, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), currently investigating the matter, has been instructed to submit a status report within three months.
The bench, comprising Justice BR Gavai, Justice PK Mishra, and Justice Sandeep Mehta, was presiding over a petition filed by environmental activist and lawyer Gaurav Bansal.
Bansal challenged Uttarakhand governments proposal to have a tiger safari, a specialised zoo with caged animals, at the national park.
Supreme Court in its order said the "unholy political-bureaucrat nexus caused heavy damage to forest and environment and said state must estimate the cost of damage and recover it from those guilty of causing damage to ecology".
While the court acknowledged the potential employment opportunities associated with safari tours in the park's buffer zone, it emphasized the necessity of adhering to established guidelines.
The Enforcement Directorate had earlier raided the residences of Rawat and Chand in connection with illegal construction in the tiger reserve.
Earlier in January, the Supreme Court had dismissed the National Tiger Conservation Authority's (NTCA) proposal to establish a tiger safari within national parks, emphasizing the need for an "animal-centric" approach over a "tourism-centric" one.
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