Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Aug 19: In the recent past, Karnataka State Wildlife Board had been reconstituted by the state government. Former captain of the Indian cricket team, Anil Kumble, who was given the post of honorary vice president of the board, was shunted out of the board during this process.

Interestingly, J Rana George, son of state home minister, K J George, has been opted in as a member of the board which has state chief minister, Siddaramaiah, as its president, a Kannada daily has reported.

The newspaper has pointed out that under Indian Forest Conservation Act, only wildlife researchers, scientists, and experts in the subject can be made members of the board. Rana George, who does not seem to fulfill any of these conditions, has been surprisingly made a member of this prestigious board.

The post of honorary president for this board had been created during the tenure of BJP government in the state, specifically for accommodating Kumble. The present government has abolished this post. The board, which customarily is chaired by the chief minister and has the forest minister as its vice president, needs to have ten persons drawn from among scientists, wildlife researchers, and people with extraordinary contributions to this field as its members, Two of these posts should be earmarked for experts from scheduled communities, and three have to be given to people representing non-governmental organizations.

The fact that George, who is still young and is not backed by any outstanding achievements to his credit, has been made a member of the board has angered wildlife activists. They feel that if the government was sincere enough in its efforts and was backed by the desire to run the board successfully, it could have easily found out people with excellent contributions to this field. A paediatrician from Mysore (Dr Shivaprakash), Sharat, a native of Andhra Pradesh with experience of having worked for Jungle Lodges, Soorya Adoor who had conducted research on frogs, wildlife expert, Sanjay Gubbi, Ajay Desai, who is an expert on elephants, journalist, Joseph Hoover, Made Gowda, and Subru, who represent scheduled communities, and NGO representatives, Neeraj Nirmal, Malleshappa, and M D Madhusudan, have been appointed as members of this board.

There are rumours that the government reorganized the board in a hurry, after it buckled under pressure to accommodate Rana as a member of this board. It is also said at the very first meeting of the board after it was reconstituted, Rana demanded permission for him to move about freely in all the forest areas including tiger reserves and national parks in Karnataka. But it is said that state chief secretary, Kaushik Mukherjee, put paid to the aspirations of this youngster, by categorically making it clear that there is no provision to give such a permission to him.