Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (Retd) reviewed and discussed the status of the rationalisation of the Karakoram and Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuaries, at the LG Secretariat on December 9.

Chairman, LAHDC Leh, Advocate Tashi Gyalson; Member of Parliament from Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal; Deputy Chairman, LAHDC Leh, Tsering Angchuk; Advisor, Dr Pawan Kotwal; Executive Councillors- Tashi Namgyal Yakzee and Ghulam Mehdi; Commissioner Secretary, Dr Vasanthakumar; Secretary to LG, Ravinder Kumar; APCCF Brij Mohan Sharma; Chief Wildlife Warden, Sajjad Hussain Mufti; Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Santosh Sukhadeve and officials from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, joined the meeting physically and virtually.

Advisor, Dr Pawan Kotwal apprised the LG of the legal status of the Wildlife Sanctuaries. He informed about the notification and management of the protected areas under J&K Wildlife Protection Act 1978, the Act being repealed vide J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 and the extension of Central Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 to UT Ladakh and the exercise of determination of rights of the people living in Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary in 2022 which has not been completed yet. He also informed that there is no legal distinction between the core area and the buffer zone of the protected area of wildlife sanctuary.

Kotwal informed the LG about the letter written by him to Dr. Sathyakumar, Scientist G at WII Dehradun, to ‘generate maps of the wildlife sanctuaries in accordance with the boundaries laid down in the notifications No’s SRO 155 (Changthang WLS) and SRO 152 (Karakoram WLS) would be the starting point for conducting any rationalisation exercise.’ He stated that contrary to the communication from the UT Administration, WII Dehradun has generated a map with increased WLS areas.

Chairman, LAHDC Leh, Tashi Gyalson; MP Ladakh and Deputy Chairman, LAHDC Leh, highlighted the need to renotify the Karakoram and Changthang Wildlife Sanctuaries and pointed out various loopholes in the notifications regarding fixing the wildlife boundaries.

Highlighting that the exercise of rationalization of boundaries of Karakoram and Changthang Wildlife Sanctuaries has been going on for the past few months, LG stated that the issues/parties involved in this aspect are the protection of wildlife of Ladakh, the people of Ladakh inhabiting+ the area and then the ground reality and requirement of the people. He highlighted the importance of following the present situation and the condition of the people living in these wildlife sanctuaries. He asked WII Dehradun not to go beyond the Terms of Reference (ToR) provided by the administration.

L-G asked the concerned officials of Wildlife/Forest Department, UT Ladakh, to prepare a case pointing out all the dichotomies, public grievances and interim permission needed for people engaged in tourism activities to run homestays, hotels/guest houses in wildlife sanctuaries, so that necessary guidance can be sought from the Ministry of Home Affairs before proceeding further on the exercise of rationalisation of the boundaries of the Karakoram and Changthang Wildlife Sanctuaries.