Aug. 31: The National Green Tribunal has ordered the closure of all tourist accommodations inside Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar.

The order followed a petition by an environmentalist who alleged that the facilities had come up in violation of the forest act and other laws. The Buxa reserve has 69 private accommodations and 20 other boarding facilities run by the Bengal forest department.

On July 27, the eastern bench of the tribunal in Calcutta had directed the state government to shut down all the accommodations. As the order wasn't implemented, the tribunal issued another directive today, asking for the submission of compliance reports from the authorities concerned on October 13.

Subhas Datta, the Calcutta-based environment activist, had filed the petition in December 2015.

"Today, the principal secretary of the forest department told the bench that the accommodations were yet to be closed. After hearing the case, the tribunal directed the chief secretary, the principal secretaries of the state tourism and forest departments and the district magistrate of Alipurduar to close down the facilities and submit compliance reports on October 13," Datta said.

He said the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, mandated that reserve forests could not be used for any "non-forest" activities. "Moreover, all the hotels or related establishments inside Buxa are being run without consent from the state pollution control board."

The bench of Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Ranjan Chatterjee said during the hearing today: "We are unable to understand how such establishments were allowed to run within a prohibited zone."

Government lawyer Bikash Kar Gupta pointed out during the hearing that only the local tribal people could undertake non-forest activities within the forest according to the forest rights act.

The private lodge and resort owners in Buxa claimed that the introduction of tourism helped in the conservation of the reserve.

"While it's a fact that uncontrolled tourism has increased in Buxa, what is also important is that tourism has largely been able to push away poachers and conserve the wildlife as well as provide livelihood to over a thousand local youths," said Raj Basu, a senior tour operator in north Bengal.

Chandan Sinha, the forest secretary, told The Telegraph: "I will be able to comment only after receiving the order."