Gurgaon: Forest minister says unaware of poaching in the Aravallis

A group of environmentalists and animal rights activists on Saturday met Haryana forest minister Rao Narbir Singh and sought his intervention in curbing the alleged rampant wildlife poaching in the Aravallis.

The environmentalists said that although the minister assured action, he said he wasn’t aware of poaching in the Aravallis.

The meeting took place in the backdrop of a rise in incidents of poaching in the region. On December 29, a group of environment activists met Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan in Delhi and urged him to act against poachers.

“The process of setting up an Aravalli Special Task Force, which has been on the anvil for almost two years now, needs to be speeded up. Whatever little was done in the past has also been rescinded by the department for some unfathomable reason. Checkpoints which were set up earlier in the Aravallis to keep watch have been dismantled. This has resulted in a spike in numerous illegal activities inside the Aravallis,” Vaishali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist was quoted as telling the forest minister at Civil Lines on Saturday.

The special task force was mooted to monitor the Aravallis areas to curb illegal tree felling and poaching.

The activists said if urgent measures are not taken to preserve and safeguard the wildlife and vegetation in the Aravallis, then the forest range in Haryana, which was deemed the most degraded in the country as per a report by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in May 2017, will degenerate further.

Read I Aravalli poaching complaint at Union minister’s door

The report said that Haryana could face desertification if the Aravallis aren’t protected. In fact, Shivani Sharma, an honorary member of Animal Welfare Board of India, said that the process of desertification has already begun, with about 12 breaches in the mountain range.

The environmentalists also appealed to the minister to direct measures to check rampant tree felling in the Aravallis. “Huge number of trees are being chopped at regular intervals inside the jungle and it is leading to shrinkage of the habitat of the wildlife that inhabit the forest. Fast reducing green cover is also resulting in drying up of pits for wild animals, thereby forcing them to stray into civilian areas in search of water and food. The result is a spurt in incidents of man-animal conflict,” Himani Sharma, an animal rights activist, said.

Assuring prompt action, the minister told the activists, “I am not aware of poaching in the Aravallis. However, forest guards will be sent to certain locations inside the forests to verify facts. We will hold a joint meeting with residents and the forest department next week to discuss steps to save wildlife.”