DEHRADUN: The authorities at
Rajaji Tiger Reserve
have begun shifting 200-odd van gujjar families inhabiting the core area of
Gohri
range of the reserve.
Sanatan Sonkar, director of Rajaji, said, “These 200 van gujjar families have encroached upon land in Gohri range which is the core area of the park. Their names are not in the list of actual claimants prepared in 1998. Thus, they are not eligible for rehabilitation package.”
The van gujjars have resisted attempts at relocation claiming that they were land owners and not encroachers.
Sharafat Ali
, a van gujjar, said, “Our families have lived here since 1990s. It is illegal to uproot us.”
Mir Hamza, head of
Pathik Sena Sangathan
, a statewide association of van gujjars, said that gujjars being removed from the park should be given a good relocation package.
The
Rajaji director admitted that shifting the gujjars was a challenging task and said that the process was started only after he met with the chief minister,
MLA Ritu Khanduri, Swami Yateeshwaranand and mayor Vinod Chamoli. “I explained to them with the help of documents how these families were staying illegally in a tiger habitat. It is also not safe for them to live in the region, where tiger density is quite rich.”
The director said that 13 families have been given land in
Gaindi Khata
but they have continued to stay in the reserve. He said that 20 families which were left out from the 1998 list would be provided a package of Rs 10 lakh each.
Last month, TOI had reported how 1,575 van gujjars had put up their claims for a rehabilitation package claiming that they have lived in the area since 1980s.
Almost 1,318 van gujjar families have been relocated in the past two decades including 512 in Pathari area and 1,998 in Gaindi Khata in Haridwar.