Bengaluru: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has pulled up the state government for allowing a resort to operate in the notified area of the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve for the last one year.
In a letter to Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, the NTCA has voiced its concern over the delay in evicting the resort from the sensitive area and stressed the need to put an end to the mushrooming of illegal resorts in the critical tiger and elephant corridor close to an important tiger “source area” like Nagarhole in the interest of wildlife conservation.
The Kay Yess Resort, owned by five partners, one of whom is a relative of excise minister , Satish Jarkiholi, is the only one with a bar to be located so close to the critical tiger habitat, standing as it does on the banks of the Kabini river, the lifeline of wildlife in the area.
With no one keeping tabs on it, the forest department has no idea if the resort is dumping its waste into the river or following green practices. The wildlife division of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had directed the state government last year to evict the resort, but no files moved, leaving conservationists fuming.
“We don’t understand the delay in moving the resort. Any commercial venture in the notified area of a national park or tiger reserve needs consent from the Central Board For Wildlife. But in this case no such approval was asked for,” they charge.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Vinay Luthra when contacted, said the resort was located on revenue land and his department was doing everything possible to close it down. “The forest department has already issued a memo to the resort asking it to move. We have also asked the concerned excise DC to cancel its bar licence,” he added.
