People have been allowed to build houses, educational institutions, including universities, in the tiger habitat - especially newspaper barons....Arjun Singh, when he was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, had set the trend by building a huge mansion near the Kerwan Dam on the southern periphery of Bhopal - the capital of the Central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. After that it's been a free for all. The law of the land has been turned, twisted and blatantly violated by the politicians, their cronies and vested interests -all against the interest of the grandest of all species that's supposed to sit at the apex of the biotic pyramid. In recent years, successive governments in Madhya Pradesh have shown short shrift to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. This has been demonstrated by the inclusion of rank outsiders in the State Wildlife Board. Some of those included as members of this body should never have been there but they are there at the whims of the politicians in power. Under Section 6 (1) (E) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, the State Government is required to nominate10 non-official members who have to be eminent persons working in the sphere of wildlife conservation - but who cares when it comes to nominating favourites to this powerful body that's supposed to monitor acts of the Government that would jeopardize the goal of conservation especially hotspots in terms of the sensitive ecosystems. A writ petition with regard to the blatant violation of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 by successive State Governments is pending in the Madhya Pradesh High Court since 2019 (WP 17484/2019).
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