West Bengal PWD’s transgressions in Buxa Tiger Reserve
West Bengal's public works department is constructing an inspection bungalow-cum-guest house in the Buxa Tiger Reserve
New Delhi: You may not spot a tiger in West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), but you can surely see signs of construction.
Nestling at the meeting point of three bio-geographic regions—lower Gangetic plains, central Himalayas and Brahmaputra Valley—Buxa is home to rare species of flora and fauna, except, it seems, the tiger.
Surveys and camera traps deployed by government agencies and independent researchers have failed to record the presence of the big cat in the reserve. However, some experts believe Buxa’s dense forest, located in Alipurduar district, is contiguous with forests in Bhutan and Assam, making it difficult to track tiger movements across large swathes of forest land.
What’s for sure is that where the animal has vacated, humans have stepped in. Perhaps not necessarily in that order.
The latest construction coming up in the Jaintia range in the tiger reserve is an inspection bungalow-cum-guest house.
Despite objections from the state’s forest department (FD), the public works department (PWD)—another arm of the same government—is pushing ahead with the construction.
A series of letters exchanged between November 2015 and May 2016 by the two government departments (and reviewed by Mint) reveal that PWD is constructing the new inspection bungalow-cum-guest house on the banks of River Jainty, without valid permissions and circumventing wildlife and forest conservation laws. The two-storied building has a construction budget of ₹ 3 crore.
In May 2015, the deputy field director of the tiger reserve wrote to a PWD executive engineer that as per records, the land where the construction of the PWD inspection bungalow and guest house were proposed was forest land. “Construction of PWD inspection bungalow and guest house, which is permanent in nature, is definitely a non-forestry activity as per Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (FCA). In the existing Record of Rights (RoR) land is shown as forest land, which conclusively proves that any type of non-forestry activity in these lands will attract provisions of FCA,” a letter by the forest official stated.
Moreover, the construction site is designated as the buffer area of the tiger reserve and is proposed to be included in the core area under orders from principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden (CWW).
Since wildlife clearance and forest clearance are mandatory for any construction, the deputy field director requested PWD to immediately stop construction until permissions were obtained as per provisions of FCA.
According to two forest officials, PWD ignored the directive and went ahead with the construction of the bungalow, citing it as a priority project of the West Bengal chief minister.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Project Tiger officials told Mint they were unaware of the guest house and bungalow coming up in a tiger reserve.
NTCA’s report in 2014, Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Tiger Reserves in India, suggests, “The core area of the (Buxa) park is not ecologically well-defined and certain forest areas have been left out, the inclusion of which would have resulted in a harmonious and well meaning entity.”
Additionally, the core area also is under biotic pressure from a number of villages. Attempts to relocate villages from the core have been futile because of political interventions.
Today, BTR is reeling under increasing anthropogenic pressure, unorganized tourism, illegal constructions and boulder mining from core area, besides diminishing frontline staff. Adding to it are unrealistic development concepts from the state government, which wants to reintroduce tigers from Assam and convert Jainty into a model village.
The events leading to the bungalow construction started in November, when a PWD executive engineer wrote to the field director of the tiger reserve: “As desired by the Honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal, this department has taken initiatives for renovation/remodeling of the existing PWD Rest-Shed into Inspection Bungalow beside the River Jayanti (sic) at Jayanti Forest Range within Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar District. As learnt from local Forest Department, the plot of land belongs to Forest Department though the same is in permissive position of PWD. It is requested to kindly convey ‘No Objection Certificate (NoC)’ from your kind end over the above mentioned proposal at the earliest to take further necessary action from this end to fulfill Honourable Chief Minister’s kind desire.”
The field director reported the matter to the PCCF and CWW.
In February, the PCCF and CWW responded to the PWD proposal in an ambiguous manner: “Since the land in question stands transferred to PWD in an order dated 16.02.1918, the issue of NOC is not applicable. As the part of the transferred land has already been washed away due to havoc flood in Jainty river during 1993, therefore any proposed activity within the balance transferred land under possession should comply with the provisions of Tiger Conservation Plan / Critical Tiger Habitat & other Rules and Regulations in vogue.”
The Buxa reserve officials quoted said, requesting anonymity, that PWD officials have selectively taken the first part of the letter—“issue of NOC is not applicable” and ignored the rest. The officials also pointed out that PWD has undertaken a new construction in the garb of renovating a tin-shed and have intimidated the forest department by repeatedly referring to the chief minister.
In March, the range officer of Jainty alerted the deputy field director of “huge construction work” by PWD, which was about to be started. The range officer also sent the PWD contractor a notice requesting stoppage of all construction work till it submitted requisite permission and a plan to build inside a protected area.
After getting this notice from the range office, the executive engineer, PWD wrote two letters to the field director and the deputy field director of the tiger reserve.
The 27 April letter to the field director reads, “Before taking initiatives towards renovation, several threadbare discussions were held with you in different meetings. Hence, it is presumed that the construction/renovation activity is going on under the intimation of your department. In spite of that, the range officer, Jainty range, has issued notice to stop construction questioning the legality of the construction activities. However, under this circumstances, your kind intervention is sought for towards settlement of this unnecessary embarrassment in executing this topmost priority project as desired by Honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal.”
Another letter dated 29 April to the deputy field director read, “Directions/ statements as communicated by different authorities of forest department are quite ambiguous to be understood by this end. In this regard, the undersigned likes to state that tender procedure as well as engagement of agency in the said work was finalized by PWD only after resolving the issue of NOC as communicated by the PCCF & CWW. After that, in midst of ongoing work direction to stop all construction work till obtaining “forest clearance” and “wildlife clearance” as per provision of Forest Conservation Act by PWD is absolutely embarrassing.”
According to BTR officials, PWD has also undertaken reconstruction of a broken bridge over River Bala connecting Jainty to Rajabhatkhawa within the tiger reserve, though a letter from PCCF & CWW directs that there should be “no new area involved and felling of trees”.
Mint reached out to Pradiptya Chattopadhyay, PWD executive engineer, Alipurduar, who is in charge of the project. “I am not authorize to speak on this matter,” he said.
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First Published:1 Sep 2016, 04:23 PM IST
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