Baluni had filed a public interest litigation in the high court eliciting focus on the growing involvement of some members of the Van Gujjar community in poaching and other wildlife crimes.

Talking to The Pioneer, Baluni said that on Tuesday, the high court gave the State Government four weeks to inform the court about the number of Van Gujjars living in forest areas and to submit their revenue records. The HC has also sought information about steps being taken by the State for rehabilitating the members of this community.

Baluni said, “In my petition I had cited about a dozen tiger poaching cases in the past couple of years in which one or more members of the Van Gujjar community were involved. Notorious poachers Gopi and Balku Bawaria also operated with the help of members of this community.

Another aspect is that there are no facilities for the Van Gujjars living in forests which has also affected their standard of living and socio-economical condition negatively. I have pleaded that the members of this community should be rehabilitated outside protected forest areas for their own betterment and in the interest of wildlife,” said Baluni.

It is estimated that about 700 Van Gujjar families are living in protected forest areas across the State including inside the Corbett national park and Rajaji national park.

Forest department officers aver that members of the community have taken over the best water and fodder resources, which is creating problems for the wildlife. The Van Gujjars on the other hand complain that the department officers are not acting efficiently to resolve their problems.

It will be recalled that some days ago the Rajaji authorities had nabbed two Van Gujjar brothers who had confessed to poisoning a tiger found dead earlier this year in the Gohri range of the national park. The brothers had said that they had poisoned the big cat because it had attacked and killed their buffaloes.