Environment Ministry trains guns on Thapar’s New Year forest bash

Sharma has in a letter dated December 18 asked Uttaranchal’s Chief Principal Conservator of Forests N.K.Joshi to provide forest staff for helping the Steering Committee members “in case of any emergency”. Brijendra Singh (he’s also honorary wildlife warden of Corbett Park), Jaswinder Singh and Navin Raheja are the three committee members cleared by the Ministry to go to Kolhu Chaur.

Wildlife controversies somehow never tire of chasing Thapars. The landing of their helicopter in the midst of Corbett Park a few years ago — Samir Thapar claims it was a crash-landing — is still fresh in the authorities’ mind. And a few months back in New Delhi, wildlife officials recovered two barking deer from Thapars’ Aurangzeb Road bungalow.

Samir Thapar denied that hunting was the objective of the New Year trip. He told The Indian Express: “This is utterly absurd. The days of hunting are long over. It will be a strictly private affair and I am going with my family and a few friends for New Year celebrations.” He, however, didn’t disclose the guest list which reportedly includes a few Bollywood personalities and top businessmen.

Lashing out at the forest officials and “so-called environmentalists” for ganging up against him just because he happened to belong to a leading industrial house, Thapar has a few words of advice for his critics. “Instead of hounding me unnecessarily, tell them to do something constructive for Indian wildlife which is in a shambles right now. Tigers are being poisoned in Dudhwa and decimated in Corbett and other national parks. I have been going to these jungles for three decades and I have never been charged with poaching.”

The Corbett Park authorities are not taking any chances. Alerted by the development, they have taken their own measures. Park Field Director P.C.Joshi told this correspondent he has directed his staff to be close to potential trouble-spots in view of Thapar’s jamboree. “I have discussed the matter in detail with the higher-ups in Uttaranchal. Rest assured, we’ll be keeping an eagle eye over the goings-on,” he said.

Hectic, last-minute preparations by the Thapars are afoot at Kolhu Chaur to make the New Year eve event a grand affair. Sources here say tents with modern amenities are being pitched at a feverish pace, electricity generators are being carted to the area and a trained elephant could be reaching the venue any day for joyrides. Thapar pooh-poohs the charges: “So what if I am pitching tents (next to the rest house). It will be a very peaceful affair.”

Known for its breathtaking surroundings in the thick Terai jungles, Kolhu Chaur can be reached through Kotdwar after crossing 14 forest streams — certainly not an easy job for picnickers bred on soft city life.

Wildlife lovers and experts, meanwhile, have started kicking up what promises to be a strong show of resistance to the Kolhu Chor affair. Project Tiger members held a meeting here yesterday to study the situation and, if need be, take legal recourse.

M.K.Ranjit Sinh, a senior Steering Committee member, said “tourism has to take a subservient position to conservation. One has to be more careful when dealing with the so-called tourism for the sake of tourism.” Ashok Kumar, of Wildlife Trust of India, adds that “people have to enjoy forests by giving due regard to the spirit of nature. Certainly, invading a forest in large numbers and disturbing wildlife is not the way to savour nature.”