Hearing on a public interest litigation filed regarding the lack of proper equipment with forest department personnel, the High Court of Uttarakhand has sought reply from the Central and State Governments within four weeks. High court advocate Sandeep Tiwari had filed the PIL in the high court stating that the forest department personnel posted for protecting the forests and wildlife do not have proper equipment. They face a lack of proper fire fighting equipment, guns and satellite phones among other equipment. Incidence of forest fires is rising in the forests each year leading to destruction of forest wealth. Meanwhile, the forest department staff suffer from a lack of modern communication facilities. Wild animals are also being poached while the mineral wealth is also being illegally taken out of forest areas. The petitioner has stated that in order to ensure protection of the forests and forest wealth, the forest department personnel need to provided with proper equipment necessary for their tasks. Hearing the PIL, the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Verma sought replies from the Central and State Governments within four weeks.
