April 26, 2011
Re: Dissent Note on proceedings of the Standing Committee Meeting of the National Board for Wildlife on 25 April 2011
Due to the hurried manner in which the proceedings of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) were conducted on 25 April 2011, we would like to put our dissent note on a number of the decisions taken during the meeting, and request that these be put on record.
The Ministry’s 14 September 2010 Notification constituting the Standing Committee states that “The Member-Secretary shall prepare agenda items for the meetings, obtain approval of the Chairperson and circulate it to all members at least fifteen days prior to the date of such meeting.” In view of the above, we dissent from the decisions taken by the Committee on the additional agenda items that were sent to the members on the night of Friday, 22 April 2011, giving us not a single working day before the meeting, and no time to review and assess the items for an informed decision making process.
The decision-making process of the NBWL is hampered by the fact that maps, FAC clearances, EIA reports, etc., for all agenda items usually reach the members a day or so before the meeting, a fact repeatedly pointed out by the members. It is important that members should be able to assess the proposals and the likely impacts they will have on PAs and wildlife.
Prerna Singh Bindra
Member, Standing Committee, National Board of Wildlife
Dr Koustubh Sharma
NCF, Mysore
Member, Standing Committee, National Board of Wildlife
