Parliamentary panel visits Dhanaulti

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, June 6

A 12-member team of the Standing Committee of Parliament on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests, headed by Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress Renuka Chaudhry, which is on a two-day visit to the state to assess the causes and find out the solutions of forest fires, reached Dhanaulti today.

Committee members took stock of the situation by witnessing the impact of fires in the forests around Woodstock School, near Buraskhanda and Dhanaulti during their visit.

Renuka Chaudhry, speaking on the sidelines of the field study, said the committee was concerned about the forest fires and it thought of visit the areas affected by it and meet people on World Environment Day.

She said they were concerned about the health of forests and had come to see for themselves the causes that had led to forests fires, its impact on environment and how best they could help in mitigating such cases in future. The committee would take all information from NGOs, concerned people and officials on the reasons behind such forest fires. After examining all aspects, they would be coming out with their recommendations that would be tabled in Parliament soon.

She said such fires were normal, almost integral and accepted in the hilly region but this year due to inadequate rainfall and lack of moisture along with five-year cyclical outburst had resulted in widespread forest fires. Chir pine tree needles that are highly inflammable have added to the problems resulting in several acres of forest being engulfed by forest fire.

When asked about whether they would look at various conspiracy theories such as poachers, especially from China, triggering such forest fires through their links in India so that the animals rush to the China side and became easy target for the ancient Chinese medicinal use which fetches huge price in the markets, she said, “We will be looking at everything through 360-degree prism because it is important to examine all possibilities and probabilities that can happen so that we take those preventive steps to ensure that nothing infiltrate the forest wealth of the country.”

Speaking on the issue of eco-sensitive zones, she said the committee had applied its mind on every issue Parliament had discussed threadbare on what should be the right of forest dwellers and the rights of forest dwellers and the responsibility towards them could not be diluted.

The Rajya Sabha members, CP Narayan, Paul Manoj Pandian and Bhupinder Singh along with MPs from Lok Sabha Pankaj Chaudhry, K Gopal, Nagendar Kumar Pradhan, Nagendar Singh, Vikram Usendi and M Vasanthi, were members out of 31-member committee to visit Dhanaulti.