Supreme Court halts road works through tiger reserves
21 June 2019
The
Supreme Court on Friday ordered an immediate halt to the construction
of a road that passes through a corridor between the Rajaji and Corbett
Tiger Reserves. “There appears to be numerous violations of the Forest
Conservation Act,” it said.
A Vacation Bench of Justices Deepak
Gupta and Surya Kant issued notice to the Uttarakhand government,
asking it to reply, within three weeks, to a report filed by the
court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC).
The road,
which traverses a “critical” corridor between the Rajaji Tiger Reserve
and the Corbett Tiger Reserve, is being built without the statutory
approval of the National Board for Wildlife, the CEC said in its
report. “As per the 2014 data of All India Tiger Estimation, the area
supports up to four tigers per 100 sq km...,” it said.
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