In a letter to Jayanthi Natarajan, minister of state for environment and forests, NBWL members Kishor Rithe and six others including AJT Johnsingh, Prerna Bindra, Asad Rahmani, Biswajit Mohanty, Mitali Kakar and Bibhab Talukdar have sought clarification on reports appearing in a section of media that MoEF was itself subverting its conservation mandate and sidestepping wildlife concerns for border roads network.
The members have pointed out that MoEF in March 2011 had made it mandatory that all non-forestry activity in elephant reserves and wildlife corridors will be required to be placed before the standing committee of NBWL before any diversion. However, the rule has now been modified without taking members into confidence.
They said that MoEF has initiated correspondence stating that the projects falling within tiger reserves, elephant reserves and corridors need not be placed before the standing committee of the NBWL and diversions can be effected as per the discretion of the MoEF. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN, Nagpur.
