BENGALURU: The Forest secretariat has sought the recommendations of the chief wildlife warden on the construction of Trinity Jungle Resort in the Castlerock area of Dandeli and Anshi Tiger Reserve (DATR), which is getting ready for inauguration.
Following a report in Express on October 14 (Resort in Dandeli ready to open, forest dept in slumber), forest officials said action will be initiated keeping in mind the draft notification on eco-sensitive zone and the year of purchase of the site by the resort owners and its location, etc.
Additional Chief Secretary, Forest, Ecology and Environment, T M Vijay Bhaskar told Express, “The inspection report of K N Murthy, which is with the chief wildlife warden, will be the basis for further action. I have asked him to submit his recommendations based on this.”
It may be recalled that with conservationists filing a complaint against the construction of Trinity Jungle Resort inside the sanctuary, Additional PCCF, Evaluation, Working Plan, Research and Training, K N Murthy visited the disputed resort owned by Jaytoyah Investments & Holidays Ltd, Mumbai, and filed an inspection report on March 27, 2015.
In his report, he cited three violations - there is more land area under the resort than they actually own, so a detailed joint survey should be done to check if there is any encroachment. Even the sketch issued by RFO, Tinnaighat, is not correct while the ownership claims made by the resort owner needs to be verified properly. All original deeds need to be examined carefully as the owners produced only photo copies of the site documents.
Meanwhile, wildlife activists from Dandeli region stress that prompt and strict action will stop the mushrooming of resorts and home stays in core areas and surrounding forest areas of DATR.
They add, “It is very clear from Murthy’s report that tourism department has given permission to construct the resort after this area has been declared a wildlife sanctuary in 2011. Hence, prompt action should be taken to evict the illegal resort at the earliest. In fact, in the recent times, nearly 8-10 resorts and home stays have come up in Castlerock area alone.”