SC berates Uttarakhand's former minister Harak Singh Rawat over mass deforestation, illegal construction at Corbett
India to set up international big cat alliance Rawat, who was the forest minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2021 is now with the Congress party. The court's judgment came on a petition filed by environment activist and lawyer Gaurav Bansal alleging the destruction of the tiger habitat and a decline in the tiger density in the Lansdowne Forest Division owing to illegal construction in the Pakhro Tiger Safari as well as illicit cutting of trees.
The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court had earlier held Rawat and and Kishan Chand responsible for various illegal activities, including constructions in connection with a tiger safari in 2021, in the Pakhro and Morghatti forest areas of the Kalagarh Forest Division of the Corbett Tiger Reserve. Himalayas to see year-long drought if global warming is not checked, shows study In its report submitted to the apex court, the committee held Rawat and Chand guilty of illegal construction activities in the Pakhro and Morghatti forest areas.
It had also given its green signal to the Uttarakhand vigilance department to continue with the legal proceedings against the forest officials involved in the irregularities. The committee had said even when the media was reporting all kinds of disturbances in Pakhro and Morghatti, the then-chief wildlife warden and the state government did not take action against the culprits.
Carbon neutrality: How is India placed? The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the case at present. The Supreme Court has asked the CBI to submit a status report in three months.
"Since the matter is pending investigation by the CBI, we do not propose to comment any further on the matter. We have also observed that this cannot
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