Zeenews Bureau
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s dream project - a Lion safari in his home town Etawah has landed into trouble, with Union Environment Ministry sending a show cause notice to the state government asking it to halt the project.
The notice asks the Akhilesh-led government to immediately halt the project and reply back in 15 days in regard with environmental clearance aspects.
The Samajwadi Party which came to power in March this year had given its go ahead to the Rs 35 crore project last month. A 50 hectare patch land in Fisher Forest in Mulayam Singh Yadav's bastion – Etawah is being developed for the safari.
The project will see lions being migrated from zoos across the country to the safari where they will then be kept in cages. The move is being viewed as a step to attract tourists.
However, several environmentalists are vehemently opposed to the project and raised strong objections to it.
The environmentalists are of the view that the Samajwadi Party government should do more to conserve hundreds of saras and ghariyals living in the vicinity of Etawah rather than migrating Lions to this place.
Even Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is apprehensive to the project.
Interestingly, Akhilesh Yadav’s father and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav too faced environmental hurdle in 2006 when he had to stop construction of an airport on the habitat of the saras in Etawah.
First Published: Friday, July 06, 2012, 13:52