Kalagarh (Uttarakhand), December 3, 2013: In a landmark judgment yesterday, the Supreme Court accepted and upheld the report of the Central Empowered Committee to return the encroached New Kalagarh irrigation colony to the Corbett Tiger Reserve. The State Government has been given six months to ensure compliance and report to the court.

The SC has also rejected the separate application filed by the govt to retain an ‘Engineer’s Academy’ inside Corbett. It has also asked for any land pending with the Uttar Pradesh Government to be handed over to the Uttarakhand. The SC also ordered the Uttarakhand government to relocate the traders from the area.

“This is a great victory for tigers, elephants and other wildlife of Corbett,” said Ashok Kumar, Vice-chairman, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), who had first moved the Allahbad High Court on the case in 1999, and has been following up on it since then.

Ritwick Dutta, SC Advocate with the Delhi-based Legal Initiative of Forest and Environment, who has been helping WTI in its legal matters, said, “It took almost a decade for the case to reach this stage. Thanks to Ashok ji’s persistence and never-give-up attitude and Anita Shenoy who argued the case in Supreme Court, this has come through, despite strong objections. The state of Uttarakhand will have 6 months to ensure compliance and report back to the court.”

The New Kalagarh Irrigation Colony consists of about 784 families within the southern boundary of the Corbett TR. The area was temporarily handed over to the Irrigation Department in August 1966, for use during the construction of the Ramganga Hydel Project in the then undivided Uttar Pradesh.

The conditions for the handover included for the land to be returned to the Forest Department on completion of the project. It was also agreed that the houses to be constructed had to be mud and not cement mortar so that they could be demolished later. However, the houses were taken over illegally by outsiders after the staff moved away when the construction of the dam was completed.

Following Ashok Kumar’s petition, the Lucknow Bench of Allahbad High Court quickly decided in August of 1999 that all encroachments of the area had to be removed by December 15 of the same year.

However, before this deadline, the state bifurcated, with the dam falling in Uttar Pradesh, and the colony falling within Uttarakhand. For four years after that there was no movement on the implementation of the judgment.

In 2003, an application was heard by the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on the issue, and ordered a site inspection. By April 2004, the CEC produced a list of recommendations, based on an assessment by the Bombay Natural History Society, which primarily argued for the removal of all encroachments within three months. It also recommended shifting all non-essential facilities such as the Engineer’s Academy and other structures out of the Reserve area within six months, demolition of all walls, fencing, garden furniture to ease movement of animals and the relocation of all non-essential operational staff to the legal colony outside the national park within six months as well.

“The issue here isn’t just about the illegal encroachments and the pressure on the forest reserves. And surprisingly, there is about 60-odd acres allocated to the Irrigation Department outside the forest area lying vacant,” said Kumar. “Movement of elephants has been greatly impacted post the dam’s construction leaving them little room to navigate. With this judgment, the right of passage may finally be restored to the elephants and the wildlife of the area.”