The Uttarakhand High Court Tuesday ordered a CBI investigation into tiger poaching incidents within the state while terming it as the “rarest of rare cases”. “Generally, the Court does not order for investigation by the CBI but the present case is the rarest of rare cases where the expertise of CBI is solicited,” the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lok Pal Singh mentioned in an order. The bench also said that “sufficient material has come on record which shows the involvement of the (forest department) oficers with the poachers.” In the year 2016, an incident had surfaced where five tigers were allegedly killed by poachers. A report submitted by Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Jai Raj in June, this year, held former Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden Digvijay Singh Khati and former Corbett Tiger Reserve Director Samir Sinha responsible for “administrative laxity” that had resulted in the poaching of those five tigers. In the past two and a half years, upto 40 tigers and 272 leopards have died in Uttarakhand. While all these deaths were not due to poaching, the court asked the CBI to investigate the issue. “We request the CBI to hold preliminary enquiry into all the cases of poaching in the State of Uttarakhand and to find out the complicity/involvement/ connivance/ collusion of the serving Officers/ Officials of the Forest Officers/officials in the last 5 years in view of the data placed on record by the petitioners,” the Bench ordered.
