Can plots of land from out of the famous Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary in Ladakh Union Territory be allotted in blatant violation of Wildlife protection Act and Forest Conservation Act by the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Leh ? Besides, can the directives of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court too be disregarded in this respect? The allotment of these plots, therefore, illegally otherwise bordering Himachal Pradesh and China have been cancelled by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The areas being demarcated and protected in the sanctuary needed protection and sustenance rather than allotments made to some influential local people.
We hope that there could be no agency better and competent than the LAHDC to protect and preserve natural assets and boons like Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary and the move seems really causing concern. If people somewhere settled on voluntary basis and removed there-from later was decided to be settled in the protected area , the same was fraught with violating various laws besides setting in motion a wrong precedence of ‘authorised encroachments’. Proper knowledge about various laws in regard to protecting forest and other water bodies and sanctuaries by the members on the LAHDC is mandatory to prevent such allotments or any other infringement in such protected areas.
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