The forest department on Wednesday demolished three illegal private resorts which were coming up in the core area of the Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar district.
According to sources, all the accommodations were raised on forest land. While construction of one of the resorts had finished, work was in progress on two other sites.
Earlier, on November 26, a team of foresters had been to the area that is on the bank of the Jainti river under the east division of the BTR for inspection. They, however, had to return as a section of people dwelling in adjoining areas resisted.
This made the department issue notices to the owners of the resorts, asking them to vacate the land within the next seven days.
“As they did not act on the notice, we went there today and demolished the establishments. Those were built in the core area of the forest which is a complete violation of the Indian Forest Act. It has been clearly mentioned that no such construction work can be carried out in a reserve forest,” said Budhwaraj Sewa, the field director of the BTR.
Sources in the department said Subhash Datta, a Kolkata-based environmentalist, had already flagged the issue before the National Green Tribunal.
“Also, a status report of the BTR has to be sent to the National Tiger Conservation Authority. That is why the demolition was necessary. Existence of such accommodations in the core area is unacceptable,” said a source.
Since morning, police personnel, along with foresters, had been deployed on the spot to prevent any untoward incident. An excavator was engaged to pull down the structures. The drive continued till the evening and there was no resistance from the locals.
“We believe residents of adjoining areas will understand that the step was needed for conservation of nature and wildlife. The department is vigilant and is in the process of checking out the locations of all such accommodations which have come up in different locations across the forests of north Bengal. Any resort or lodge that has come up on forest land will be demolished. It has also been mentioned in the Centre’s and state’s policies on eco-tourism that the forest area has to be protected,” a senior forester said.
