SHIMLA: HP State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board has filed a criminal case against Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for polluting water in the Balh Valley in Mandi district, by discharging highly polluted and siltladen water from the balancing reservoir of its Beas-Sutlej Link (BSL) project.

Chairman of the pollution control board, Dr Rajeev Bindal, said a case had been filed in the court of the judicial magistrate class-I at Sundernagar in Mandi district, under the provisions of water (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1974.

He said the criminal case was filed against the BBMB chairman and the chief engineer of BSL as they had not taken any steps to implement the environmental management plan prepared by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, a premier institute in the field of environmental impact assessment.

Bindal said the discharge of the highly polluted and silt-laden water from the balancing reservoir of BSL project had caused widespread adverse environmental impact, including socio-economic consequences, and also polluted the natural water sources in Mandi district. He said NEERI, in its report, had assessed the annual silt load from the project at about 8 lakh cubic metres and an estimated 184 hectares of land had been adversely affected in the Balh Valley.

The produce in the affected land had gone down considerably because of the silt and farmers of the region were demanding immediate action to save their land from becoming barren, he added.

The pollution control board chairman said though NEERI had submitted its plan recommending measures to be adopted for disposal of the silt in December 2000, BBMB had failed to take steps to implement these recommendations.

‘‘We have been constantly pursuing the matter with the BBMB management for implementing the recommendations by way of letters, notices and meetings but no pragmatic and tangible solution has been taken by them, because of which we have been compelled to seek legal remedy by filing a criminal complaint in the court of law,’’ he added.

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MYSORE: A 90-member team of forest officials busted a poacher gang from Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, who allegedly used the dangerous device of 'Jaw trap', entrapping a male tiger in the Kakanakote forests, 45 km from here.

The team, headed by Deputy Conservator of Forests A M Annaiah, arrested the 35-member poacher gang, including 15 women, from various parts of Hunsur, H D Kote taluks and in Mysore and recovered from them the 'Jaw traps' and other devices, forest officials said.

The forest officials are on the lookout for 25 other gang members, some of whom were camping in Settalli forest zone. The officials were assisted by police in Hunsur and H D Kote.

According to forest officials, the Nagarhole forest will be closed to the public for one week from Tuesday to facilitate an intensive search for the remaining members of the gang.

Meanwhile, the tiger is receiving treatment in the Mysore zoo hospital.

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