Search the Internet           Tips

Conservationists up in arms in Dehradun

Dehradun bureaucrats, in a tearing hurry to set up the provisional capital of Uttaranchal state, have ran into trouble with conservationists, both within the government and outside.

According to activists and forest department officials, a team of district officials accompanied by policemen occupied the premises of the historic Himalayan Heritage Centre, near the Clock Tower in town, on Thursday without an official order. The take-over led to a stand off between the district authorities and senior officials of the ministry of environment and forests associated with the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education.

Members of the non-governmental agency that was collaborating with the environment ministry to protect the centre are protesting the "vandalism of a slice of heritage". Indications are that the district administration is going ahead with its plan to convert the 150-year-old building into the Governor's residence.

Ministry officials in Dehradun have rushed off protest letters to the district administration and to Delhi. The ministry owns the building and the 13 acres surrounding it, which houses over 200 rare species of trees and is home to several exotic species of birds.

Says Lokesh Ohri, of Rural Entrepreneurship for the Arts and Cultural Heritage, an NGO, "We have been trying conservation through culture in collaboration with the environment ministry. This building was built in 1860 and the area surrounding it is the town's only green belt."

REACH in collaboration with the Forest Research Institute had set up the centre.

Ohri says the centre is the oldest arboretum in the entire Commonwealth, and houses artifacts and paintings from tribal and forest belts of India.

"On Thursday evening a few officers and about 100 policemen came here without any order and took over the premises, asking us to vacate. They shifted all the artifacts and paintings to one room and sealed the premises," says Ohri.

Agrees Dr J K Rawat, principal of the central government-run FRI, "We didn't know exactly what they were doing. We have not got any orders from the ministry."

"We have protested to the ministry and the district administration. The administration claims that there is some understanding with the ministry that the building will be given to the new government. But we have not got any orders," he says.

According to sources, the Union government has sanctioned the take-over.

But the history of the centre cannot be wished away.

The building was the first forestry school in the country. Lord Dalhousie, who started the forestry institute in 1878 brought to India the famed German botanist William Brandis in 1964. It was under Brandis that several exotic species of plants were nurtured in this compound.

Even till date, several of these exotic trees are visible in the compound and they include trees such as Podocarpas, which is found only in the southern hemisphere.

In 1906, the centre became the Imperial Forest Research Institute and College and later it was renamed as the Northern Forestry Regional College.

The original building, a prime example of Indo-colonial princely architecture, continues to fascinate visitors.

"It has a history of its own," says Dr Rawat.

The Himalayan Heritage Centre, the fresh initiative to preserve the building and its surroundings, was set to became a multi-faceted attempt at depicting the cultural practices of indigenous communities vis-a-vis forests and wildlife, with an emphasis on Himalayan communities.

The centre also had plans to host a film institute to be set up by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal and Indo-Tibetan Border Police chief Gautam Kaul, according to REACH members.

REACH members are dismayed by the high-handedness of the authorities. Dr Rawat says he has no objection in handing over the building if the environment ministry orders him to.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report