Safe route

Patna, July 23: Having violated the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) the state government signed with National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2009 by effecting premature transfer of field director of Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) recently, the Bihar government has now embarked on a damage-control exercise.

The environment and forest department would write a letter to the NTCA explaining the reasons which led to its decision of effecting premature transfer of J.P Gupta.

“I had no idea about the clause when the transfers were being effected. Now that things have been brought to my notice, I have directed the department officials to inform NTCA about the decision taken by the state government and the reasons which led to this decision,” deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the environment and forest department charge, told The Telegraph.

He, however, didn’t reveal the points the state government is going to explain to NTCA to justify its decision. “I cannot share this information at this juncture,” Modi said.

A highly placed source in the department said though Gupta carried the impression of an honest officer, he failed to meet the expectations of the department bosses. Also, two incidents of poaching took place during his tenure in the VTR.

Gupta was recently transferred one year before completion of his term as field director, VTR, and an Indian Forest Service officer Santosh Tiwari was appointed on the post.

“The incidents of poaching during Gupta’s term took place in March 2010 when a seven-day old cadaver of a young tigress was found after villagers pointed out that some people were trying to bury it. A similar incident happened this year too when forest officials failed to take notice of a rhino poached inside VTR. The matter came to light after villagers informed forest officials more than a week after the poaching took place. Both these incidents had put a question mark on the efficiency of the field director, hence it was decided to transfer him and post a more dynamic officer there,” said the source.

He also claimed that in none of the two cases, investigations were carried out properly and this point too went against the former field director.

The Telegraph on July 17 had carried a report which talked about violation of terms of the MoU the state government had signed with the NTCA. At that time Modi had said that he didn’t have any idea about the terms of the MoU and he would ask the departmental officials to look into the issue.

Meanwhile, source in the NTCA said the bosses in the authority had yet not taken up the issue of premature transfer of VTR director. “Let the state government make its stand clear. If the bosses are satisfied, funds would be given to the VTR else the authority may take the stern step of not providing funds to the reserve for violation of the terms of the MoU,” the source said.