Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): State government has reconstituted the Madhya Pradesh Wildlife Board for the period of three years. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav is the president of the board while forest minister Nagar Singh Chouhan vice president.
Sources in the forest department said that the first meeting of the board is scheduled to be held on March 11. The agenda of the meeting is being forwarded to the central government.
The re-constitution of Wildlife Board was pending for the last many months and due to which many important proposals could not be forwarded to Centre for necessary permission. Forest department had requested the government in October to reconstitute the board.
Three MLAs -Hemant Khandelwal, Madhu Singh Gehlot and Neeraj Singh Thakur have been made members of the board. Some institutions and specialists of tribals have also been included in the board.
The board’s ex officio members include MoS for forest, Chief Secretary, additional chief secretary and principal secretary (forest department), additional chief secretary and principal secretary (tribal welfare department), principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) wildlife and head of forest force (HoFF), managing director tourism development department, ADG and chairman of Tiger cell etc. Over all, there are a total 34 ex-officio members of the Wildlife Board.
Wildlife activist to move HC
The wildlife activist Ajay Dubey told Free Press that he is going to challenge the reconstitution of Madhya Pradesh Wildlife Board in the High Court where his petition over the concerned subject is pending since 2019. He claimed that a few members and organisations included in the board do not come from the eminent background (wildlife) which is essential for anyone to become a member of the board. Moreover, the government also failed to frame the rules of the Wildlife Board.
