The Chilla-Motichur corridor provides a critical passage for movement of wildlife including elephants, leopards and tigers between the Motichur forests on the west bank of the river Ganga and Gohri and Chilla forests on the east bank. The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has been assisting the Uttarakhand Forest Department to secure this corridor since the early 2000s.Announcing the allotment of land, the Director of Rajaji National Park SS Rasaily said that the relocation process would begin as soon as possible. “There has been an assessment of immovable property by the Revenue Department and the villagers will be compensated for assets like buildings, trees, tube-wells etc according to their worth. We shall sign an MoU with the villagers regarding the transfer of land and are looking to wind up the entire process within a year” he added.

The residents of Khandgaon III are evacuees from the submersion area of the Tehri dam and this is the second rehabilitation process for these families in the last 35 years. They originally inhabited the former Tehri village and moved to Johra block of Motichur, now Khandgaon III, with the commencement of the Tehri Dam Project.

Betaal Singh Negi, Head of the Eco-Development Committee of Khandgaon III said, “The residents of Khandgaon III have had insufficient water supply, no direct access to the road, education for their children and few opportunities at growth. We are looking forward to finally moving so that there is some stability and growth in our lives.”

The chosen land for rehabilitation is Lalpani Compartment II which is located near Rishikesh. Since the allotment had to be made from forest land, the utmost criteria was to ensure that it wasn’t ecologically sensitive or in a corridor. “This land has been chosen after great consideration keeping two major benefits for the people in mind,” explains Dr Anil Kumar Singh, . “These families are hill folk, and never felt at home in the plains of Khandgaon. Moving here will take them closer to their roots and will end two generations of unsettlement. Secondly, its proximity to Rishikesh will provide better employment opportunities giving them an opportunity to improve their standard of life.”

But this is not the end of the road, says Dinesh Chandra Pandey, Field Officer, WTI. “There are 9 families remaining for land allotment, all efforts are being made to speed up this process. The adjoining Army ammunition dump is also in the final stages of relocation.”

WTI works in partnership with communities and governments to secure critical wildlife corridors in India. It follows three main approaches for corridor securement. These include land purchase accompanied by voluntary relocation of human settlements as is being done in south India; encouraging setting aside of community land for corridor securement as in Garo Hills, Meghalaya and providing eco-development incentives to the local people, and as facilitators between the Forest Department and communities as in Chilla-Motichur.