Uttarakhand High Court stays denotification of Shivalik Elephant Reserve

The Uttarakhand High Court has put a keep on the denotification of the Shivalik Elephant Reserve, the state’s solely jumbo reserve.
The order by a division bench of the excessive courtroom comprising Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Lokpal Singh got here on a PIL filed by environmental activist Reenu Phul on Friday.
Earlier on January 4, one other division bench of the courtroom had issued notices to the Centre, the state authorities and the state wildlife board over the choice to denotify the elephant reserve. They got 4 weeks’ time to answer.
The keep order was granted on the primary working day of the newly appointed chief justice of the excessive courtroom.
Previously, round 80 individuals had written to performing Chief Justice Ravi Malimath, pleading to cease the denotification of the Shivalik Elephant Reserve by the federal government.

The state wildlife board had in November 2020 determined to denotify the reserve, arguing that the transfer will pave the way in which for improvement work in an space spanning over 4,500 sq km, together with growth of Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport.
On Friday, a recent PIL was filed stating that the Asiatic elephant is at its westernmost habitat in Uttarakhand and it will be merciless to destroy it.

The Shivalik Elephant reserve was notified in 2002 underneath ‘Project Elephant’, which was launched by the federal government of India in 1992.