New Delhi: Two days after The Wire published a report on revelations gleaned from a Right to Information reply on how the Assam government paid for the significantly high cost of hosting former President Ram Nath Kovind and his family at Kaziranga in 2022, the state environment and forest department has asked Assam’s chief wildlife warden M.K. Yadava to step down.Yadava is also the principal chief conservator of forests and the head of the forest force.The RTI reply received by Assam animal rights activist Rohit Choudhury in November 2022 had acknowledgment from the office of the field director of the Kaziranga National Park that the state government spent Rs 1.51 crore from its wildlife conservation funds to host Kovind and his family for two nights in February 2022.In the reply, the field director categorically mentioned that approval for the use of Rs 51 lakh for the visit came from the office of the chief wildlife warden. The response made its way to Assamese media. The Kaziranga National Park field director then told reporters that the order to divert the funds – Rs 1.1 core from the park’s tiger conservation fund and Rs 51 lakh from another wildlife fund – were at the behest of “powers from above”. The director did not identify the chief wildlife warden in his response to reporters.Following The Wire‘s report, a section of Assamese media pointed fingers at Yadava, blaming him for the misuse of the wildlife funds.On April 1, an official circular noted that Yadava had been replaced by Sandeep Kumar with immediate effect.The circular is issued in the name of Mahmood Hassan, secretary of the Environment and Forest Department of the state government. Seen by The Wire, the circular categorically stated that Yadava’s replacement by Sandeep Kumar was an action carried out “in the interest of public service”. Kumar, an Indian Forest Service officer from 1998 batch, is the principal chief conservation of forests (wildlife and biodiversity) and also the project director of the Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society.
