The much-awaited tiger safari project of Uttarakhand government is under scanner after a Forest Survey Of India (FSI) report stated that over 6000 trees were illegally cut in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) against the permission of 163 for the Pakhru tiger safari. The State forest department refuted the FSI’s claims and said that there were some technical issues which needed to be resolved before finally accepting the report.
The FSI was asked by the Uttarakhand Forest Department to access the status of illegal felling in and around Pakhru Tiger Safari. They were asked to estimate the number of trees felled in the illegally cleared area based on expertise and technology available with the organisation. The Forest Survey Institute was also tasked to scan the area in and around the Pakhru tiger safari for illegal felling and to analyse any area within Kalagarh tiger reserve which was seen to be exhibiting forest cover change.
“After compiling the report in around 9 months in Pakhru block, Kalushaheed block Nalkhatta Block and Kalagarh block, the FSI has come-up with an observation that the area cleared under CTR is estimated as 16.21 hectare (hac). The trees estimated on the cleared area are 6093 in number with the lower bound of 5765 and the upper bound of 6421 with 95% confidence interval and 2.72% standard error,” said a senior official from the forest department in Uttarakhand who did not wish to be named.
