Gujarat: Translocation panel met only after activist moved contempt

It took five years and a contempt petition before the steering committee that was to look into lion translocation bothered to meet. The debate over the need to translocate lions to MP has gathered steam once again after Dalkhaniya range in Gir East recorded 23 deaths of lion in 20 days. While the forest department initially attributed the deaths to infighting and some infections, reports from the National Institute of Virology Pune confirmed that four of the lions had succumbed to Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) while nine others died due to babesiosis infection spread by ticks.

Ajay Dubey, an environment activist who had filed the contempt petition in the Supreme Court said, "One was a 12 member expert committee that was to look into lion translocation like number of lions to be translocated, how to translocated them etc. This committee has met seven or eight times so far. But the steering committee, was the one that was to decide the when and why of translocation,"said Dubey. 

He said despite the SC order the steering committee that was to be made up of principal chief conservator of forest, Gujarat and MP and a representative from the Mo-EF never met. "When our contempt petition filed in 2014 came up for hearing on 7th March 2018, the apex court dismissed it after the Gujarat government orally submitted that the committee would meet and the process will go ahead," said Dubey.

OFFICIAL APATHY

It took five years and a contempt petition before the steering committee that was to look into lion translocation bothered to meet