LUCKNOW: With the Mayawati Government focussing on the launch of 14 new schemes in wildlife conservation and social forestry, the grandiose project of a lion safari in Etawah district and the intensive plantation scheme of the Mulayam Singh Government have been virtually abandoned.

However, the present regime has redoubled efforts, including substantial budget allocation, to fully develop the Bhimrao Ambedkar Bird Sanctuary in Benti, the fiefdom of former Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya. The Benti lake had been acquired in 2002 during the previous regime of Ms. Mayawati and was notified as a wildlife sanctuary. Work came to a standstill after she resigned in August 2003.

The lion safari — the second after the one in Gir sanctuary — had been proposed by the former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh in the Fisher Forest area of his home district, Etawah. The project had been planned in 2004 and forest officials were commissioned to find lions for the proposed safari. Around Rs. 1.51 crore had been allotted for the safari in last year's budget but not a penny was spent.

State Principal Secretary (Forest), V.N. Garg conceded that the lion safari was a low-priority area with the present Government. Mr. Garg said that the project failed to meet the 10 necessary conditions set by the Central Zoo Authority. One of which was the presence of at least 10 lions for the safari.

" Rs. 1.51 crore was in the Public Ledger Account [PLA] but there are other high-priority areas", Mr. Garg added.

One of these high-priority areas was the development of the Benti bird sanctuary in Pratapgarh district. The Forest Secretary said the previous regime had made attempts to denotify the bird sanctuary. (The former Food Minister, Raja Bhaiyya was reportedly behind the move of the previous Government to denotify the Benti sanctuary ). "The present Government is in the process of making plans to develop all the wildlife (bird) sanctuaries, including Benti", Mr. Garg said.

The intensive plantation scheme of the previous Government is likely to meet the same fate as that of the lion safari. With a budget of around Rs. 78 crore, the scheme envisaged planting around 4 lakh saplings in 2006-2007 along roadsides in 22 districts in a bid to increase the tree cover. The plantation scheme included setting up 70,000 tree guards. Now with the Mayawati Government in power, the budget allocation in the 2007-2008 State Budget, which is to be presented in July this year, is likely to be reduced.

Increasing the tree and forest cover in Uttar Pradesh was a major cause for concern for forest officials and environmentalists. After the creation of Uttarakhand in 2000, the forest area in U.P. came down to 9.06 per cent, well below the national average of 33 per cent.

The satellite mapping of U.P.'s total forest and tree cover conducted by the Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI) showed that 372 square kilometres had been added to the State's forest and tree cover from 2001 to 2003. U.P. was among the 16 states which recorded an increase in green cover.

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