Turf war over Okhla sanctuary (Times of India 21 January 2011)

NEW DELHI: The development of the Okhla Bird Park has been on hold for several years as its notification has become a bone of contention between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. UP notified the park as a sanctuary in 1990, including areas that came under Delhi. While the state is in the process of formulating a redevelopment plan for the bird habitat, Delhi wants to reclaim the areas that legally fall within its territory. Environment secretary Dharmendra said that several letters had been written to UP in the past 20 years, including many by chief minister Sheila Dikshit but the capital had received no response from its neighbour. The government has finally referred the matter for legal counsel. "We want that the area wrongly notified by UP should be denotified so that we can take charge of the land and develop it as we want. The bird park is in a mess right now, parts of it filled with sewage. A concept note for its development has been prepared but unless we know what area belongs to us, we cannot put the plan into action," said a senior official. The park has suffered massively, especially after the construction of Mayawati's Millennium Park. The Supreme Court had asked all states in 2006 to notify a buffer zone around sanctuaries and wildlife parks. UP had failed to notify any such area around the bird sanctuary because of which Millennium Park was allowed to come up, even though it is barely 100 metres from the sanctuary's boundary. However, despite plans on both sides for the park's redevelopment, nobody is even sure of who owns what part of it. Sources said that despite Delhi's insistence, no concrete work has been put into carrying out a land survey or determining the boundary. UP has notified the entire 400 hectares of the sanctuary. "UP has said that we can notify the areas Delhi feels are under it but it is legally not possible to notify an already notified area. It will take a central government order to denotify the boundary. Delhi Development Authority, the land-owning agency, should have taken steps to stop UP from notifying the entire area when it was happening rather than wait for so long," said sources. Delhi's biggest problem at present is a shortage of forest staff. Senior officials said that the department does not have a sufficient number of forest rangers and guards to manage even its present assets and hence they would need to embark on a massive hiring spree before they are able to manage a park like the Okhla Bird Sanctuary.