Jharkhand High Court: The Division Bench of Ravi Ranjan, CJ., and Sujit Narayan Prasad, J., addressed the disturbing incident pertaining to death of an elephant calf. Reprehending the conduct of the forest staffs, the Bench stated,
“The duty of the Forest Guards as also the Range Officers is to guard not only the forest but also the animals for which the staffing pattern to that effect has been made but even though the elephant calf reported to have died 3-4 days ago, nobody was aware about the death which suggests about the functioning of the employees/officers of the Forest Department…”
The Court had taken suo motu cognizance of a news report published in the Daily Hindi Newspaper (Hindustan) about the death of an elephant calf, that too, within a period of 10 days of one such incident.
Noticing that the above-mentioned incident remained unreported for a long time as the death was said to have occurred 3-4 days ago, the Bench termed it very disturbing as under the staffing pattern in the department of Forest and Environment, Jharkhand, hierarchy starts from the post of Forest Guard, Rangers and then Divisional Forest Officers and thereafter, the other higher hierarchy is there to control such incidents.
Finding it shocking that the incident remained unreported for considerable period of 3-4 days, the Bench stated it is the duty of the Forest Guards as also of the Range Officers to guard not only the forest but also the animals for which the staffing pattern to that effect had been made but even though the elephant calf reported to have died 3-4 days ago, nobody was aware about the death which suggested lackadaisical functioning of the Forest Department within the State of Jharkhand. The Bench reminded,
“It appears to us that the aforestation programme by large was restricted to reclaiming, conserving and developing flora, however, though the flora is required to be conserved and developed simultaneously fauna is also required to be reclaimed and preserved by taking necessary steps so that ecological balance is maintained.”
In the backdrop of above, the Secretary, Forest and Environment, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Chief, Wild Life Warden, and Divisional Forest Officer of the Division concerned were directed to remain present through video conferencing on the next date of hearing. [Suo Motu v. State of Jharkhand, W.P. (PIL) No. 3498of 2021, decided on 10-09-2021]
Kamini Sharma, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
Appearance by:
For the State: Rajiv Ranjan, Advocate General and Piyush Chitresh, AC to AG