Himachal: Protest against illegal farming on Pong wetland in Guler
Himachal Pradesh: Villagers of Guler and Gatuthar Gram Panchayats of Kangra district today staged a protest against the wildlife wing of the state forest department for not taking any action to stop illegal cultivation along the banks of the Pong wetland. Led by Thakur Das, Pradhan of Gatuthar Gram Panchayat, the villagers staged a protest against wildlife officials at Guler where illegal cultivation was allegedly going on despite a prohibition given by the Supreme Court of India in February, 2000 against any human activity including cultivation on land in wildlife sanctuaries in wetland area across the country. The agitated villagers said that earlier also they had staged a protest on November 28 against the ongoing illegal cultivation in the Pong wetland area and demanded removal of barbed wire fencing on the encroached land. A wildlife official who reached the spot had assured the protesters that the fence would be removed in eight days, but the officials have not taken any action till date.
They warned that if the officials do not remove the fence and stop cultivation on the land, they will remove it themselves. Local villagers involved in today’s protest alleged that illegal cultivation was posing a threat to migratory birds and ecology. “Farmers sowing crops in the wetland wildlife sanctuary area use pesticides for their crops which prove fatal for migratory birds as well as milch cattle grazing on the land,” they lamented. Meanwhile, local environmentalist MR Sharma alleged that officials of the wildlife wing of the forest department were responsible for the unabated illegal cultivation on the land in the wetland area. He said the central government had notified the wetland area as a wildlife sanctuary in 1999 under the Indian Wildlife Act 1972 and the wildlife wing of the forest department, which is the custodian of the Pong Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary area, has failed to stop the illegal cultivation practice going on for the past several years.
