Kandi Road will not be affected due to Pakhro tiger safari project, says forest minister

Dehradun: Uttarakhand forest minister and Kotdwar MLA Harak Singh Rawat on Monday clarified that the construction of Kandi Road, a stretch cutting through the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) to reduce the distance between Garhwal and Kumaon regions by around 70 kilometres, will not be impacted by the Pakhro Tiger Safari project. Last week, Rawat laid the foundation of the Pakhro Tiger Reserve, which will be operated in the Pakhro zone of the CTR in Lansdowne area of Pauri.
The clarification by the minister comes after Lansdowne MLA Dilip Singh Rawat stated that the Pakhro Tiger Reserve will be a 'major hurdle' in the construction of Kandi Road.“Any kind of wildlife-related project in and around the reserve will increase problems. The forest department should have thought this through in advance. This project will hit the construction of Kandi Road,” he said.
Reacting to the statement, Harak Singh Rawat told TOI, “The Pakhro safari is proposed in the buffer zone and it will span from Kotdwar to Pakhro gate, covering an area of around 106 hectares and a distance of around 20 kilometres. We already have a proper road there and it is transferred to the PWD department. Therefore, it will not hinder Kandi Road construction in any which way. The MLA is just spreading false rumours.”
It is worth mentioning that the Kandi Road project had run into legal trouble after activists objected to the proposal of construction of a road cutting the CTR. Meanwhile, the Pakhro Tiger Safari project is the pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had spoken about the development of the safari while shooting for a TV programme in CTR in 2019.