Kewal Singh Pathania, Vice-Chairperson, HP State Forest Corporation.
Dharamsala, November 26, 2013: “As many as 775 villages of the State are excluded from the Wild Life Sanctuary areas and traditional rights of the people residing in such have been restored to them so as to bring them at par with the ongoing development process by providing them basic facilities like Roads, electricity, water etc. This comes in the wake of Apex court ruling this year, wherein the Government was to exclude 793 villages out of animal sanctuary areas. The ongoing process to exclude the remaining villages out of few sanctuary areas would soon be completed, “said Kewal Singh Pathania, Vice-Chairperson, HP State Forest Corporation, here today.
He said that the decision to exclude few villages in the range of Great Himalayan National Park, which includes Tirthan and Sainj areas of district Kullu, Nargu Sanctuary in Mandi district, Kanawar in district Kullu and that of Renuka wildlife sanctuary area would soon be taken up and all the villages would be taken out from the ambit of animal sanctuary areas for which the process is underway.
Pathania said that as many as 318 villages of Chamba district falling under the ambit of wild life sanctuaries had already been excluded from the same. There are five wildlife sanctuary areas of Chamba.
He said that after the rationalization process, there were now 30 wildlife sanctuaries spread around 6226.83 Sq. Kms, Two national parks viz: The Great Himalayan National Park and the Pin Valley National Park comprising of 1440 sq. Kms and three conservation reserves (19.17 sq. Kms).