6 suspended for illegal digging in wildlife sanctuaries of MP

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has suspended six forest employees for their involvement in illegal digging in two wildlife sanctuaries of the state.

According to official orders, two forest guards of Ratapani wildlife sanctuary and four of Sindhori wildlife sanctuary were suspended for not taking necessary steps in checking the laying down of optical fibre cables in parts of the two forest reserves.

The matter of illegal digging came to light when an NGO 'Prayatna' filed a complaint in this regard with the chief minister's office, Prime Minister's office and the ministry of environment and forest.

"After consistent efforts of over two months, the steps have been taken and some of the employees have been suspended," said Shehla Masood, a member of the NGO.

The orders for suspension have been issued against Masiyatullah and Narayan Prasad Sharma, forest guards of Ratapani wildlife sanctuary, besides Shafiuddin Qureshi, B M Upadhyaya, Rajesh Yadav and Dinesh Kumar Sharma (forest guards of Sindhori wildlife sanctuary), officials said.

The department has also issued show-cause notices to C S Dubey and S K Dixit, sub divisional officers (forest) for Sindhori and Ratapani wildlife sanctuaries respectively, they said.