Jaipur: Despite the Centre “declining” the Uttarakhand forest department’s “proposal” to use a portion of the Rajaji National Park and Narendra Nagar Forest division for the Kumbh Mela scheduled in 2021, the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led Bhartiya Janta Party government in the state has written to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to reconsider its decision.
While turning down the proposal, the Centre had stated that forest areas cannot be diverted for non-forest purposes as requested by the Uttarakhand forest department. However, the department insists that the Centre objected to the proposal only because the timeframe of “temporary” usage exceeded the prescribed limit.
In its proposal in April, the Uttarakhand forest department had exceeded the liberty of use of forest land for non-forest purposes given in the MoEF&CC’s orders, and said forest land in a protected area could be used Kumbh Mela activities for a nine-month period. This massively exceeds the two-week limit imposed by the MOEF&CC.
In April this year, D.J.K. Sharma, additional principal chief conservator of forests, Uttarakhand (APCCF) and nodal officer of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) had sent a proposal to state principal secretary (forest), to transfer 778 hectares of the national park to the Kumbh Mela Samiti for over nine months, beginning from September 1, 2020 to May 31, 3021, in order to initiate ‘temporary’ constructions for the Kumbh Mela.
“Since Kumbh Mela is an important festival as per the Hindu traditions, the Central government must consider temporary use of forest land for non-forest purpose [Kumbh Mela] as an exception and get it issued through FAC,” Sharma had said in the proposal.
The Uttarakhand forest department’s proposal was in line with the MoEF&CC order that permitted the temporary use of forest land – which is not a part of a protected area – without the prior approval of the Central government.
In January 2020, MoEF&CC added that while permitting temporary use of forest land, it shall be ensured that such use of forest land is unavoidable for public purpose and there is no alternate non-forest land available for the proposed temporary use.
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The time period for temporary use of forest land was fixed for a period not exceeding two weeks.
These orders had drawn severe criticism from environmentalists.
“Not an inch of any National Park can be put to use for non-forest purposes. Section 35 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act clearly forbids any such activity in a protected area,” Ritwick Dutta, environment lawyer and founder of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), had told The Wire.
Speaking to The Wire, Sharma denied that no fresh proposal has been sent to the ministry. “No new proposal is sent again to the Centre to seek land of Rajaji National Park and Narendra Nagar Forest division for Kumbh Mela 2021,” said Sharma.
“Only the chief minister has written to the Union environment ministry to consider the original proposal,” he added.
However, this is contrary to the statement by Uttarakhand’s principal secretary (forests) Anand Bardhan who accepted that a new proposal was sent to the ministry for reconsideration.
“We have requested the Central government again to allow us to use the land after it was declined. We are in talks with officials and also finding alternative land for constructing the temporary structures,” Bardhan told Hindustan Times.
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Sharma had told Hindustan Times that the Centre did not consider the proposal on technical grounds. “As per norms, reserved forest land can be diverted for non-forest activities for 15 days, but given the situation of Mahakumbh, we sought special permission from the Central government which has been turned down,” he said.
Speaking to The Wire, a senior official at the MOEF&CC said that the Uttarakhand forest department has not sent any proposal to use the Rajaji National Park and Narendra Nagar Forest division for Kumbh Mela through the official Parivesh portal. (Parivesh enables the online submission and monitoring of proposals submitted for seeking environment, forest, wildlife and other clearances from the authorities.)
He further added that also means that Uttarakhand’s proposal for temporarily using land of the Rajaji National Park and Narendra Nagar Forest division is not rejected. “Since they have not sent any proposal officially, we can’t say it has been rejected. It’s just official correspondence that is going on,” the official added.
