Pong fire: Environmentalists seek action against offenders
Nurpur, May 24
Up in arms against the illegal practice of setting crop residue on fire in the Pong Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary area, local environmentalists have alleged that the Wildlife Wing of the Forest Department has turned a blind eye to the practice.
A big fire in the sanctuary area on the banks of the Pong reservoir has not only unleashed havoc on the environment, but also made the lives of the residents of surrounding villages miserable due to the sudden rise in temperature. Locals rue that the fire has destroyed flora and fauna, with a large number of birds and their eggs perishing in the last one week.
Local environmentalists Manohar Lal Sharma, Ujagar Singh, Kulwant Thakur and Ravinder Singh alleged that the wildlife authorities had failed to check the illegal activity despite the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on February 14, 2000, on all non-forestry activities in wildlife sanctuaries across the country.
They said the sanctuary area — under the wildlife ranges Nagorta Surian and Dhameta — was on fire for the over two weeks, but no action had been taken by the authorities concerned against the offenders or land mafia.
Milkhi Ram Sharma, an environmentalist from the area who has been talking about the illegal activities going on in the sanctuary for the past nine years, recently filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT), seeking legal action against encroachers and those violating the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, besides checking violations of the mandatory provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and Environment Protection Act, 1986.
Attempts to contact DFO, Wildlife, Hamirpur, Raginald Royston proved futile as his mobile was switched off.
In 1999, the Centre had notified the Pong Dam Wetland area, spread over around 300 sq km, as a wildlife sanctuary under the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972. Over one lakh exotic migratory birds visit and stay in the wetland every winter.
