Protest over park chief’s removal in Madhya Pradesh
March 15th, 2008 - 11:51 pm ICT by admin
Bhopal, March 15 (IANS) Employees of the Van Vihar National Park here locked its gates Saturday and did not allow in visitors to protest against the removal of the park director after the death of a tigress. Taking a serious note of consecutive tiger deaths including the one Friday evening at the park, State Forest Minister Vijay Shah removed director J.S. Chouhan and instituted a three-member committee to probe into the death of three-year-old white tigress Rashmi.
Brought here in 2006 from Borivali National Park in Mumbai, Rashmi was injured six days ago after she had a brawl with another white tigress when both got into the same enclosure by mistake. Rashmi was also suffering from arthritis for quite some time.
The employees first went to the residence of the forest minister Saturday morning to demand reinstatement of the director but when they were not allowed to meet the minister, they came back and locked the gates of the park in protest.
“How can a park official be held responsible for the death of the tigress when all the treatment arrangements were in place? Also how can any one be held guilty without any inquiry,” asked MP Wildlife Conservation Employees Union president Budhraj Bhagwan who led the employees to the minister’s residence.
“We will continue to serve the animals but not allow the visitors inside the park till our director is reinstated. We may even intensify the agitation if our demand is not met,” he told IANS.
In the last one and a half years, as many as 14 big cats have died at Van Vihar due to various reasons.
- Panna has a new resident - Kanha's orphan tigress - Nov 13, 2011
- Students body protests Bhopal tiger deaths - Mar 18, 2008
- Kanha's second orphaned tigress sent to Panna reserve - Nov 13, 2011
- Wildlife guardians: Adoptions rise at Van Vihar (With Image) - Jun 22, 2011
- Another tigress dies at Bhopal national park - Mar 15, 2008
- Kanha tigress finds new home in Panna forest - Mar 27, 2011
- Tigress gives birth to one cub - Nov 21, 2011
- Bhopal national park may get two white tigers - Jan 25, 2009
- Eight-year-old tigress dies at Van Vihar National Park - Jun 10, 2010
- Bhopal office of SBI adopts tigress (Lead, superseding earlier story) - Feb 01, 2010
- Bihar office of SBI adopts tigress - Feb 01, 2010
- Tigress found dead in Ranthambore National Park - Feb 09, 2011
- NGO demands CBI inquiry into tigress death - May 18, 2011
- Panna all set to welcome Kanha tigress - Mar 25, 2011
- Heavy rain delays translocation of Kanha tigress to Panna - Mar 26, 2011
Tags: agitation, arthritis, bhagwan, big cats, deaths, forest minister, friday evening, gates, half years, member committee, park director, quite some time, reinstatement, saturday morning, six days, state forest, union president, vijay, white tigress, wildlife conservation