Five Bijnor villages press for exclusion from Hastinapur sanctuary fearing livelihood loss

Bijnor: As UP prepares for the final notification of Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary (HWLS), Bijnor forest department has received seven objections by five villages along the Ganga, demanding exclusion from the sanctuary. A demarcation process began last year and villagers were asked to give their objections. According to the villagers, several restrictions, including a ban on river mining and small-scale industry, will come into force following the notification.
Elaborating on the opposition by villagers, Bijendra Singh, a resident of Ravali village, said, "The swift current of the Ganga has eroded most of our agricultural land along its banks. There is no other means of livelihood in our village. There are several restrictions here because of the sanctuary.
There is no industry either. Most of the people are jobless.” Sumit Kumar of Daranagar Ganj village, added, "The forest authority did not pay heed to our grievances. If our villages had been excluded, some development would have taken place here.”
However, the forest department says the exclusion of the villages is not possible. “We have decided not to exclude these villages as there is a criteria of exclusion which these areas do not meet. For instance, swamp deer movement has been recorded in the area,” said Anil Kumar Patel, Bijnor divisional forest officer (DFO).
The wildlife sanctuary comprises five districts -- Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Meerut and Hapur -- spanning 2,073 square-km along both sides of the Ganga.
The government proposes to reduce it to 1,094 square-km. Earlier, there were 274 villages within the sanctuary area in Bijnor. Under the proposed demarcation, this has been reduced to 142 villages, the DFO said.
Pointing out that rationalisation of HWLS is a long overdue process, wildlife activist and NGT lawyer Gaurav Bansal said, “The restructuring of the sanctuary’s borders has been done by Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India using scientific methods with an aim to protect wildlife ecology. The objecting villagers have the right to move court to demand exclusion. However, animals, too, have rights and need to be safeguarded.”
It may be noted that in October 2020, the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) had recommended rationalisation of HWLS, a crucial step towards the final notification pending for the last 34 years.
In 1986, the government had issued a primary notification declaring Hastinapur forest area a sanctuary. However, no final government order notifying the 2,073 square-km area as a protected zone was issued.
Due to lack of proper government notification, the area does not enjoy the protection needed to check poaching and various other threats to the wildlife.