32 ‘illegal’ structures found near PTR; NGT orders action | Bareilly News
Pilibhit: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered legal action against alleged violators after a court-appointed committee flagged 32 permanent structures, including a police guest house, within one kilometre of the core area of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR), raising serious concerns over illegal construction and threats to wildlife corridors.Hearing a petition filed by Shashank Singh, a senior lawyer at the Allahabad HC’s Lucknow bench, the principal bench comprising Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Dr Afroz Ahmad examined the joint committee’s findings, which pointed to widespread encroachments and regulatory violations in the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) surrounding the reserve.Taking note of the report, the tribunal allowed the petitioner to implead the identified violators and directed the respondents to file their replies within four weeks. Singh said, “The tribunal granted the respondents four weeks to file their replies and scheduled the next hearing for Sept 29, 2026, stating that the respondents should be given the liberty to be heard before any final judgment in the matter.”The respondents in the NGT petition are the Union of India, the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Divisional Forest Officer of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, and the District Magistrate, Pilibhit.The committee was constituted following an NGT order issued on Jan 13. It included Pawan Jeph, assistant inspector general of forest at the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA); Apoorv Dixit, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, representing the Uttar Pradesh principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife); while Pilibhit DM Gynendra Singh was designated as the coordinating member.During a two-day inspection on July 15 and 16, the panel surveyed the one-kilometre ESZ around the reserve to identify commercial establishments such as hotels, guest houses, and resorts. Besides documenting 32 permanent structures, it found several new constructions underway despite the restrictions.The report also revealed a blatant circumvention of spatial guidelines, with commercial operators exploiting community-based “homestay” provisions by artificially subdividing properties or adopting the “homestay” label to bypass restrictions on commercial establishments. It also identified a significant number of farmhouses near the reserve boundary, warning that they had a high potential for immediate or unauthorised conversion into commercial resorts without proper regulatory oversight.One of the most serious concerns highlighted in the report was the obstruction of wildlife movement. Investigators found energised electric fencing around several properties, which they said posed a direct threat to wild animals and disrupted critical wildlife corridors.The panel recommended immediate verification of no objection certificates (NOCs) and land-use conversion approvals for all such properties, saying stricter enforcement was necessary to prevent further degradation of the tiger reserve’s sensitive buffer area.Supreme Court, in its June 3, 2022, order in the TN Godavarman Thirumulpad case, barred new permanent commercial structures within one km of protected forests. Although the order was modified on April 26, 2023, to relax implementation where site-specific ESZ notifications exist, restrictions on commercial construction around protected forests continue to apply. The Union environment ministry issued a draft notification on Feb 13 this year proposing an ESZ extending up to 2 km around PTR, but the final notification is still awaited.
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