GUWAHATI: Assam principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and Head of Forest Force (HoFF) NK Yadav has been removed as Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW).
Sandeep Kumar, PCCF (Wildlife and Bio-diversity) cum Project Director, Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society, has been given the charge of CWLW with effect from Saturday.
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Mahendra Kumar Yadava, PCCF & Head of Forest Force, Assam, holding the additional charge of Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) shall hand over the charge to Sandeep Kumar, immediately, said a notification issued on Saturday.
Sandeep Kumar will continue to hold the charge of Project Director, Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society, the notification added.
Also read: Assam: Massive anomalies in Kaziranga National Park, CWLW MK Yadav under scanner
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PCCF MK Yadava, a 1989 batch IFS officer, landed in hot water after the report cropped up that Tiger Conservation Fund (TCF) were indiscriminately spent for non-permissible works in Kaziranga National Park (KNP).
The TCF, which are to be used only for conservation, have been indiscriminately spent for non-permissible works in KNP under the orders of PCCF MK Yadava.
According to a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query, around Rs 1.1 crore was spent on former President Ram Nath Kovind’s visit to Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in February last year.
The amount was spent from the corpus meant to be used for the conservation of tigers. The RTI application was filed by wildlife activist Rohit Choudhury.
There are also allegations against PCCF Yadava that rhino census figures in Kaziranga National Park were fudged for consecutive years.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change sought a “factual report” on the rhino population enumeration, conducted in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in March 2022.
Massive trafficking of captive elephants was also reported in Yadava’s reign as Chief Wildlife Warden.
A few cases of adult elephants being transported without microchips, or with freshly installed microchips, came to light recently.