Villages under Corbett to be kept out of eco-sensitive list

The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday decided to keep villages falling under the Corbett Tiger Reserve out of its eco-sensitive list.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, state government spokesman and cabinet minister Madan Kaushik told reporters.

The decision is likely to bring relief to the residents of Dhela village and 46 'chaks' or farm clusters around it in CTR as they had been protesting against the proposed move on the plea that inclusion in the eco-sensitive list will impose restrictions upon them and harm their largely agricultural economy.

Their two apprehensions were that they would not be allowed to construct houses with more than a single storey or to use fertilizers and pesticides in their farms once their village and the 'chaks' around it became part of the eco-sensitive list, Corbett Tiger Reserve Director Rahul said.

The cabinet also decided to return the land given to HMT which has closed its unit in Nainital district to the departments which owned them, Kaushik said.

Finance and banking services were also included under the ambit of public utility services through an amendment in the Vidhik Seva Pradhikaran Janopyogi Seva Niyamavali, 1987.

The cabinet also decided to divest in district magistrates the authority to permit mining on private leases.