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Forest mafia eyes Bulandiwala
Positive discrimination is state right, |
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Roorkee police fails to crack major criminal cases
Driver, his six accomplices thrash cop
People’s rail hopes run off-line
Scheme to check goitre in children, women
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Forest mafia eyes Bulandiwala
Dehradun, July 10 Teak,
khair, semal and eucalyptus saplings were planted in the Bulandiwala beat of Rajaji Park when the park was part of the reserve forests. Each of these trees today are of a diameter between 2.5 ft to 4 ft. The smugglers it seems opted for select felling, bringing down trees with a thick trunk in small patches so as to ensure that the crime remained unnoticed. Patrolling has been strengthened inside Rajaji Park, particularly after the Dhualkhand skirmishes between forest guards and wood smuggles. In
Bulandiwala, ferrying out felled trees from inside the park area must have been an arduous task. The smugglers would have crossed the Sateywala and Lachiwala check posts and the Dudhli forest barrier and also crossed the Fanduwala divisional department office. Hence, the connivance of forest officials cannot be ruled out. Sources say construction activity in the vicinity may have made the task of smuggling out the felled wood easier with tractor-trailers bringing in concrete in all probability
utilised for ferrying the felled wood. The wall being constructed to protect villages from wild life alongside the river Sushwa may have aided the smugglers in their nefarious designs. The Bulandiwala beat is at the rear of Simlas Grant Jharond across the Sushwa on the Dorwala Dudhlee
road. Outrightly rejecting any major incident of felling in the Bulandiwala beat, the director of Rajaji National Park, SS
Raisialy, says: “Yesterday I received information regarding felling of trees in the Bulandiwala beat following which I sent a team of officials to the spot.
The officials have found no major felling except axing of a few small tree.” He pointed out that the felled stems were very old. Only some days back, the Khanpur reserve forest in nearby Roorkee revealed a rare case of forest land being taken over by the forest mafia. While a forester and two forest guards were immediately suspended after the expose, the matter is still under probe. This is not for the first time that illicit felling has taken place in
Uttarakhand. Forest wealth in the state has been systematically denuded due to the large-scale felling. Things have come to such a pass that the region known for its dense green trees today wears a patchy look. The gravest challenge to a green Uttarakhand comes from the growing influence of the land mafia and its nexus with civil administration and forest officials. People have not forgotten the Gajana incident which came as a shock as it involved felling of as many as 1,116 pine trees on the outskirts of New Tehri township by a private developer in connivance with forest officials. These trees were felled to build a housing colony. Senior forest officials and their kin had taken land in the proposed colony. Incessant felling in the Chamba fruit belt in December to make way for constructions and uprooting of trees alongside the Mussoorie-Yamunotri highway recently shows how vulnerable Uttarakhand’s green wealth is. However, Rajaji Park authorities deny direct involvement of any of the forest officials in such incidents. “We have been working hard to ensure such incidents do not recur and I have been part of raiding teams,” claims G
Pandey, warden, Rajaji National Park. The smugglers are well-organised and the park authorities too have strengthened vigil in recent times. Early this May, the authorities shot dead one person allegedly trying to flee with teak wood in the Dhaulkhand East range. Forest guards on patrol in Dhaulkhand East reportedly came across eight to 10 miscreants in the Seghali beat area in the wee hours. One of them was shot while trying to flee when confronted by the guards. The Dhaulkhand region has been quite vulnerable to illicit felling and skirmishes between forest officials and smugglers here have been frequent. The director of Rajaji National Park has time and again issued appeals to the people to cooperate with the forest department at the same time warning against any unlawful entry inside
Rajaji.
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Positive discrimination is state right, says commission
Dehradun, July 10 After convening a meeting of chief secretaries of these three states here, the members of the commission - Dhirendra Singh, VK Duggal and Vijay Shankar Tripathi - briefed mediapersons and said that deliberations were held regarding the schemes and programmes that could be implemented in these states. The commission was set up two years back with the objective to review the working of the existing arrangements between the Union and states as per the Constitution. Speaking to mediapersons in context of Uttarakhand, Dhirendra Singh said that there is a need to preserve the Himalayan ecosystem and, hence, ‘positive discrimination’ is the state’s right. “There are certain disadvantages in hill states like the problem of physical infrastructure, availability of fertile land and natural disasters. “Since Uttarakhand caters to tourists, pilgrims and several other requirements of the other parts of the country, the state in a way maintains heritage that is not available with other parts of the country. “Hence, Uttarakhand must be compensated in some form. This could be done under positive discrimination,” the members observed. Based on this, the members have asked the chief secretaries of the states to submit the reports about their requirements. “Based on the reports received from these states, the commission will submit its
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Roorkee police fails to crack major criminal cases
Roorkee, July 10 In some cases, including Aruna Vij murder, Arif murder and Shabana kidnapping, local police has failed to make headway. In Aruna Vij murder case, the body of the victim was found under her bed on August 15, 2002, two days after she had gone missing. Aruna ran the Spring Dales School in Saket here. The then SO BD Uniyal, who investigated the case, sent some strands of hair found in her hand for DNA tests. But the police procured the DNA report after two years after paying a fee of Rs 25000 from its funds.
However, even after seven years there has been no headway in the case. Even in the second case, in which the body of a local youth Arif, a supplier of drawing and survey instruments, was found in Gang Canal after he went missing for seven days in
September 2000, the police is still groping in the dark. The fingers and toes of the body were found chopped, once it was retrieved from the Canal. Arif was a resident of Mohalla Sot here.
The then sub-inspector SB Negi was entrusted the task of investigation. The police reportedly took some relatives of the victim in custody, suspecting that business rivalry could be the motive behind the murder. Later, an officer attached with Special Operation Group, Haridwar, was handed over the investigation, but the cops remain clueless till date. In another case, a local girl Shabana, resident of Dhandera village, was allegedly kidnapped on April 4, 2004, when she went for tuitions in the evening. Her tutor claimed that the victim, who was 15 years old at that time and was a student of Class 9th in a local school here, did not turn up for tuition that day. Following a complaint by her father, Waris Ali, the police took two youngsters - Sonu, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, Roorkee and her neighbour Guddu - into custody, but the victim could not be traced. The case was referred to CB-CID later, but Shabana has still not been traced.
SP (Rural) Ajay Joshi refused to comment if there was any headway in these cases.
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Driver, his six accomplices thrash cop
Roorkee, July 10 Sources said
constables Arvind and Dinesh were on duty at Kaliyar shrine when Arvind was hit by the bus. He escaped unhurt but his rifle was broken into two. “When the policemen tried to arrest the driver, Pramod Kumar, a resident of Arochi village in
Uttar Pradesh, six others came to his aid and attacked the policeman,” said the police. The miscreants have been identified as Islaam, Shahid, Niazzudin, Taswar, Abdul and Kala, all residents of Peeran Kaliyar village. The driver has been held. A case under Sections 353, 504, 506, 147 and 148 of the IPC has been slapped against the miscreants whereas the driver has been booked under Sections 279 and 332 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
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People’s rail hopes run off-line
Dehradun, July 10 Most are either rejected due to lack of economic viability or on account of technical reasons. On winning the Pauri parliamentary elections, Satpal Maharaj had reiterated commitment to working towards the laying of a rail line in the hill areas of the state. As union minister of state for railways he had on August 29, 1996, initiated survey work for the laying down of the Ramnagar-Kotdwar-Haridwar rail track and an amount of Rs 63,000 was spent on the survey but the exercise was not completed. Last month the issue of the Ramnagar-Kotdwar-Haridwar track came up before the the GM of Northern Railway, UC Dwarikashreni, but he cited technical reasons for the rejection of the proposed track. The proposed amnagar-Kotdwar-Haridwar rail line was to be laid at a height of 360 metres while Ramnagar is at a height of 410 metres, Mohan 470 metres, Marchula 525 metres, Bhikysain 700 metres, Mansi 790 metres and Chaukutia at 875 metres. Thus, the height at each destination en route the Ramnagar Chaukutia track is far above the height proposed earlier for the Ramnagar-Kotdwar-Haridwar rail line. This already makes it a fit case for rejection. The proposed Ramnagar Chaukutia line entails laying down of track alongside the Ramangar Marchula road and adjacent to Ramganga from Marchula to Chukhutia. Ramnagar station master Harish Agarwal says any such proposal starts with a traffic survey, which includes revenue assessments. In most cases, if revenue earnings are predicted to be much lower than the expenditure involved, the project is rejected at the very outset. If ever the proposal is cleared for traffic due to the necessity factor, it is followed by a technical survey after which the proposal is given final shape on the ground. Since Independence, the region has not seen a single track laid. While the British successfully laid track at a height of 1,500 meters at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, this region was less fortunate on this count. Successive governments at the Centre have paid little attention to efforts towards new rail tracks in hilly areas across the country.
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Scheme to check goitre in children, women
Dehradun, July 10 A study conducted jointly by the health department and the department of community medicine, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences (Jolly Grant), has found that 1.2 per cent of the population and 0.42 per cent of school- children suffered from
goitre. The problem was more among females (1.8 per cent) than among males (0.6 per cent).
The survey was conducted in Tehri Garhwal, Dehradun, Almora and Chamoli through random sampling. An amount of Rs 18 lakh has been allocated for 2008-2009 under the National Iodine Deficiency Control
Programme. Health experts say the problem is not alarming though cases of goitre among children and hypothyroidism in women was worrisome. “With the malfunctioning of the thyroid gland, there is swelling in the neck in the initial stages which is often ignored and often turn harmful. The disease can be prevented by consumption of iodine in meals, ”said Dr KC Pant, Doon Hospital. The deficiency may lead to mental and physical impairment and in children in excess weight gain and slow mental development.
In women, thyroid enlargement may result in abortion and fertility problems.
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Dehradun, July 10
