The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 7th February searched seventeen locations in Delhi, Uttrakhand, and Chandigarh in connection with a forest scam case involving Uttarakhand Congress leader and former forest minister Harak Singh Rawat. The sources stated that ED teams searched his home in Defence Colony as well as a medical institution in Dehradun.
#WATCH | Enforcement Directorate conducts raids at residences related to former Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat in Dehradun. pic.twitter.com/TU7Qp60ZZM
— ANI (@ANI) February 7, 2024
The raids have been carried out in relation to a matter concerning the purported destruction of thousands of trees, financial irregularities and unlawful construction in the Corbett National Park’s Pakhro Tiger Reserve area in 2019. It was one of Rawat’s pet projects when he was the forest minister in the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government.
He joined the Congress in 2022 before the state assembly election following his expulsion from the Uttarakhand cabinet and his main membership in the BJP for six years on account of “anti-party activities.” He was among the ten MLAs who defected to the BJP in 2016 after turning against senior Congressman and former chief minister Harish Singh Rawat.
After reports of unauthorised construction and tree-cutting in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in October 2021 and representatives of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in December 2021 performed inspections. The installation of a water feature close to the Pakhro forest rest house, houses in Morghati, and Kandi Road were all determined to have anomalies during the probe.
Furthermore, it discovered that felling of trees for the planned tiger safari in Pakhro was illegal and in violation of the All India Services Conduct Rules, the Wildlife (Conservation) Act of 1972, the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1970 and the Indian Forest Act of 1927. Over 6,000 trees were cut illicitly in the CTR during the Pakhru tiger safari, according to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), even though only 163 trees were allowed to be felled. The state forest department, however, disagreed with the FSI’s conclusions, pointing out unsolved technical problems with the study.
Teams from the Uttarakhand Vigilance Department raided a medical college and a gas station owned by Harak Singh Rawat’s son in August 2023 about a complaint regarding purported irregularities in the Pakhro Safari construction in the Kaulagarh Tiger Reserve in Corbett National Park.
Two generators were taken by Vigilance from the Doon Institute of Medical Sciences in Shankarpur and the Amravati gas station, according to sources. Both of these generators were reported to have been installed at the two establishments and bought using government funds. The team also examined the institute’s records and questioned staff members and the former minister during the raids. Speaking to the media, he then claimed that the forest department had been asked in a letter dated January 2022 to remove those generators, but that request remained unanswered.
The Uttarakhand High Court adopted a strong stance regarding the cutting of thousands of trees and unapproved construction in Jim Corbett Park. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was given control over the inquiry in September 2023 at the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) about the accusations. The high court also ordered the Uttarakhand investigating authorities to collaborate with the agency.
He and the divisional forest officer (DFO) Kishan Chand were found guilty last year by the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court of several illegal activities, including building related to a tiger safari in 2021 in the Pakhro and Morghatti forest areas of the Kalagarh Forest Division of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
