MoEF officer apologises to HC

Prabhat Tyagi, Joint Director, (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment and Forests, on Monday filed an affidavit before the High Court apologising for the formation of a task force to mitigate man-elephant conflict even as the court was seized off the matter.

Tyagi, in his affidavit has stated that there was no intention of interfering with the court proceedings and he acted out of anxiety.

Stating that the reason behind was to expedite the formation of the task force within the time limit stipulated by the Court, he said that the decision to set up the task force was taken on December 15, 2011 after a meeting of conflict specialists and social experts and the same was conveyed to the Court on January 4, 2012. The decision to constitute the task force was submitted for approval of competent authority in the Union government and was approved by Minister of State (Environment and Forests) on January 18, 2012.

The High Court had objected to the Union Ministry’s decision to constitute a task force to deal with man-elephant conflict in Karnataka.