ED raids 17 locations linked to former Uttarakhand Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted raids at 17 premises across Delhi, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh linked to Uttarakhand Congress leader and former minister Harak Singh Rawat, reported PTI.

The action was in connection with Rawat’s alleged involvement in illegal activities and financial irregularities in the Corbett Tiger Reserve when he was Uttarakhand’s forest minister.

The central law enforcement agency has claimed that Rawat ordered thousands of trees on forest land to be felled illegally without requisite permissions under the Indian Forest Act, Forest (Conservation) Act, Wildlife (Conservation) Act and the All India Services Conduct Rules.

The Enforcement Directorate has also alleged that Rawat sanctioned illegal construction works in the Pakhro Tiger Reserve range of the protected area, with the aim to develop a tourist attraction in Kotdwar – the Assembly constituency he represented until 2022.

Rawat had laid the foundation stone of the Pakhro tiger safari in December 2020, when he was a minister in the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led Cabinet.

After the allegations surfaced, the matter was investigated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in October 2021 and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in December 2021.

Officials found irregularities in the construction of Kandi Road – which cuts through tiger habitat – and rest houses in the...

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