Jabalpur, July 29: The Madhya Pradesh High Court issued notices to the State Government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the failure of the Forest Department and the Tiger Reserve machinery in protecting tigers and effective implementation of wildlife protection rules.
A division bench of comprising Chief Justice AK Patnaik and Justice Deepak Mishra , while hearing the petition of wildlife conservation activist Navneet Maheshwari seeking court directives to State Government for protection of tigers and to maintain the status of state as `Tiger State' by taking precaution under the Wildlife protection Act (WLPA) admitted the same.
The court directed to issue notices to Secretary, Forest, Environment and Wildlife, Bhopal, Union Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Wildlife, New Delhi to file their replies within six weeks.
Petitioner Counsel submitted before the court that the Union has declared tiger as the national animal and started tiger projects with huge investment of crores of rupees. The counsel contended that the Centre has given the Madhya Pradesh the status of `Tiger State' and funding several crore for maintaining five Tiger Sanctuaries comprising 20 per cent tiger population in the country.
The petitioner said that the Forest Department and Directorate of Wildlife Protection are maintaining Kanha Kisli Tiger Sanctuary in good manner and the number of tigers are increasing here. But against this at the rest of the four sanctuaries, Bandhavgarh, Panna reserve Satpura and Pench Tiger Reserve, the number of tigers is falling.
The petitioner submitted that at the Panna Tiger Reserve, the number of tigers as per state count is only 6 due to poaching and other illegal activities.
