The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday ordered to reinstate senior Indian Forest Service officer Rajiv Bhartari as the principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF). Bhartari was removed from the post in November 2021 as part of a major reshuffle in the Forest Department following allegations of large-scale felling of trees and construction in Pakhro and Morghatti forest divisions in the buffer zone of Corbett.
Issuing the order on Monday, a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Verma directed the state government to reinstate Bhartari as the principal chief conservator of forest by 10 am on Tuesday. Bhartari was removed from the post of PCCF in 2001 and made the head of Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board. Bhartari had moved the Central Administrative Tribunal and then the Uttarakhand High Court to challenge his removal as the PCCF saying it was done for political reasons.
