Make corbet free from illegal occupants

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The Uttarakhand High Court has asked the state government to take steps within three weeks for the eviction of all unauthorised occupants from government buildings at Kalagarh which come under the core zone of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

On a PIL challenging a government notification demarcating the buffer and core zones of the Corbett Tiger Reserve on Saturday, the Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lokpal Singh directed the Chief Secretary to take steps for the eviction of unauthorised occupants from government buildings at Kalagarh within three weeks.

The court also asked the directors of the Corbett and Rajaji Tiger reserves to preserve the viscera of tigers dying unnaturally and videograph their post-mortem, besides having inquiries conducted into their deaths by the SDMs concerned. The court also directed the state government to install CCTVs and deploy drones to prevent illegal poaching.

Taking stern view of a PIL filed by an illegal occupant of a residence in the Kalagarh area challenging a government notification demarcating buffer and core areas of the Corbett reserve, the court imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the petitioner.

Calling Vishwanath Singh, the petitioner, an illegal resident of the Kalagarh area, the Division Bench held that he could not be privy to such a PIL as he himself is a defaulter. — PTI