The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Uttarakhand government for felling trees and illegally constructing inside the Jim Corbett National Park.

The court put an end to tiger safari in the core areas of the national park as it said the public trust has been thrown into the waste bin. However, it allowed safari tours in the buffer zones of the popular national park, citing the employment it generates. The tours should follow all necessary guidelines, it added.

The top court also pulled up former Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat and the former divisional forest officer (DFO), Kishan Chand, and ordered the Centre to form a committee that will recommend steps to mitigate the damages and recover the costs from those responsible.

The bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice PK Mishra, and Justice Sandeep Mehta was hearing a petition by environment activist and lawyer Gaurav Bansal. 

The bench began with a quote from the epic Mahabharata and said, “The tiger perishes without the forest and the forest perishes without its tigers. Therefore the tiger should stand guard over the forest and the forest should protect all its tigers.”