DFO & forest ranger attached by CM

Taking a strong note of the death of Pahalwan Singh, a forest beat watcher who was allegedly trampled to death by a dumper in Rampur Tarai falling under the west forest division on Friday, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has attached DFO and Forest Ranger to the forest headquarters with immediate effect. He instructed chief secretary to book them if their involvement in the ghastly incident is proved in course of the investigation. He assured that he would establish effective mechanism soon to appropriately deal with the menace of illegal mining.

With the victim Pahalwan Singh being survived by his wife and five children, the CM   has instructed the district magistrate Nainital to give the widow a cheque of  Rs one lakh.  Besides, she will be provided with a government job as per her qualification, CM assured. This aside, the SSP Udham Singh Nagar has been asked to arrest the accused in two hours.  Acting on the order, police have arrested one of the accused so far while the police team is learnt to be on the lookout for the   other accused.

Notably, the incident happened when a forest department  team comprising 20-25 officials  made raids at Baitkhadi gate of west forest division to check illegal mining. As a dumper was being impounded a few miscreants allegedly associated with illegal mining sprang up at the scene while   brandishing weapons  and took hostage the members of the forest team. While the beat watcher Pahalwan Singh attempted to come out of their clutches he was trampled to death by the dumper. He died on the spot. On receiving information, DFO Kahkasha Naseem, SDM Ramnagar Paritosh Verma and CO Mithilesh Kumar rushed to the spot.  However, by the time they reached the miscreants fled towards   Bajpur.