The officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, belongs to 2002 batch of

Haryana Cadre, who joined the State , in September, 2005, after the

completion of training at IGNFA, Dehradun, where he got two

medals from President of India for excellence in the training. In the

state the officer was deliberately kept without any posting for whole

one year despite availability of cadre posts, being illegally occupied

by non – cadre officers in blatant violation of IFS Cadre rules.

During his first posting as DFO (Kurukshetra), he stopped illegal

transportation and habitat destruction by influential contractors

associated with a canal construction, through Saraswati Wildlife

Sanctuary, which was one of the largest protected area of region,

housing many rare floral and faunal species , most prominent being

the hog deer. An F.I.R. was also got registered against the persons

associated with above construction, for poaching of Hog deer, by

the officer. However the then Chief Wildlife Warden, Mr. R.D. Jakati

(who is now Director , IGNFA, Dehradun), acting under the

pressure , ordered to allow this illegal transportation through

sanctuary, though it was in blatant violation of section 27 – 29 of

Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 (under which only five activities –

tourism , scientific research, photography, investigation into wildlife

and lawful trade with a person residing in a wildlife sanctuary is

allowed in side a sanctuary and habitat destruction is strictly

prohibited), section 26 of India Forest Act, 1927 (trespass and

damage to reserve forest) and Hon'ble Supreme Court's order dated

14.2.2000 and 24.11.2005 (which strictly prohibited all activities

inside a wildlife sanctuary except above five) in CWP No. 202/1995

(Godavarman Vs. Union of India). The officer complied with his

orders but as a punishment, he was immediately shunted to a

remote station called Fatehabad in May, 2007. In July, 2007, he

was served a warning from state government for his 'misconduct' in

preventing the illegal transportation and habitat destruction, the

representation against which is still pending. In Fatehabad, the

officer found that huge amount of public money was being spent, for

development of a Herbal Park on the private land, belonging to

influential persons claiming closeness to then Forest Minister, Ms.

Kiran Chaudhry, without getting its ownership transferred to the

forest department and in violation of PCCF, Haryana letter no. 69-74

dated 26.4.2005 (which directed to develop the Herbal Park on

Govt. / Forest land). The officer reported the matter to higher

authorities, but he got threatening calls and PCCF, Haryana, in his

letter dated 12.07.2007, citing the clear annoyance of the Forest

Minister, on account of stopping the work, ordered to continue the

work. The officer again sent the compliance report, along with his

leave application. However overlooking both compliance reports and

the illegalities involved , the officer was placed under suspension by

state government on 3.8.2007. The suspension order did not

mention any specific grounds and when the officer applied under

RTI Act, 2005, for file notings, he was denied the information citing

the section 8(h) of the act on the ground that the matter is still under

investigation. The officer got the notings only after the intervention of

the State Information Commission, which passed severe strictures

against PCCF, Haryana, for his interference in providing information

to the officer. No mandatory detailed report was sent by state

government to central government in this case, as required under

section 3.(6A) of AIS (Discipline and Appeal) rules, 1969 neither it

replied to the repeated reminders of the later, hence central

government, in an unprecedented move, for the first time in the

history of Haryana revoked the suspension order, noting the failure

of Haryana Govt. to sent any document/comment in support of

suspension order and terming the very grounds of suspension as

unjustified. The applicant was served with a charge-sheet ,

immediately after the suspension, under major penalty, on

14.09.2007, mainly on these two grounds, which was promptly

replied on 5.10.2007. Even after the revocation of suspension, the

charge-sheet was not withdrawn.

Meanwhile, to further harassed the officer, an F.I.R. was got

registered against him, for the theft of a Kachnar tree in Fatehabad

in December, 2007. However the time of the incident was shown to

be March-April, 2007, while the officer had taken over the charge of

Fatehabad in June, 2007 and hence the police had to file the

cancellation report. Similarly a case was also initiated against the

officer on the basis of a complaint by a Forest encroacher in state

vigilance bureau but here again the complaint was found baseless.

After the reinstatement, the officer was kept without any

posting for full six months, despite availability of a large number of

cadre posts being illegally occupied by non cadre officers, and in

June, 2008, he was deliberately posted on a non-cadre post The

officer immediately got stay from Central Administrative Tribunal

(CAT) and after prolonged fight, finally succeeded in getting posted

on a cadre post as DFO (T), Jhajjar.

Meanwhile, the then Principal Secretary (Forest), Sri P.K.

Gupta, noted on 22.8.2008 , after examining the comments of

PCCF in detail on charge-sheet, that whatever was being done by

the officer in Fatehabad and Kurukshetra was his duty as Divisional

Forest Officer and charge-sheet should be dropped, but the case

was again sent back deliberately by the Forest Minister to the PCCF

for comments again which were not sent for almost one and half

years despite several reminders. Meanwhile in April, 2009, in

response to RTI application of applicant, the office of Principal

Secretary (Forest), conceded before the State Information

Commission, that charges were inserted wrongly into the charge-

sheet and paid a compensation of Rs. 25,000/- to the officer on the

orders of the State Information Commission. In December, 2009,

PCCF, Haryana wrote to Principal Secretary (Forest) that the

applicant's actions in Fatehabad and Kurukshetra were legally

correct and recommended to drop the charge-sheet, which was

approved by the later. However, the case was again sent back to

the PCCF, Haryana, by the Forest Minister, in April, 2010, raising

certain queries, who again recommended to drop the charge-sheet

but the new Principal Secretary, reversing the earlier stand of her

predecessors and overruling the PCCF, without any new

delvelopment/ evidence coming against the officer, ordered to

appoint an Inquiry Officer, on 24.05.2010, almost three years after

the issue of charge sheet, when the officer was on the verge of the

next promotion and had expressed his desire to go on the Central

Deputation. This was probably because of the closeness of the new

Principal Secretary to Ex- Forest Minister, Ms. Kiran Chaudhry.

In the case of Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary, the Supreme

Court appointed Central Empowered Committee (C.E.C.), in its

order dated 11.7.2008, found the charges of violation of forest and

wildlife statutes / Hon'ble Supreme Court's order, true and Haryana

Government had to deposit Rs. 1 crore for conservation of wildlife.

The Haryana Govt. paid this 1 crore plus Rs. 3 crore as fee of the

private lawyers hired to save the topmost bureaucrats of the state

from landing into the jail as the offence of altering the boundary of a

wildlife sanctuary is the most severe offence under WPA, 1972, with

imprisonment upto 7 years under section 51. The state government

further paid Rs. 50 lacs as penal rate under FCA, 1980 – thus an

amount of Rs. 4.5 crores were paid out of state exchequer, to cover

up the violation and even then the violators, which included Mr. R.D.

Jakati, were let off only on the technical grounds that the sanctuary

had been denotified by the time of decision, courtesy Sri J.P.L.

Srivastava, then D.G. Forest, belonging to Haryana Cadre, who

could become D.G. Forest in May 2007, only after overlooking /

abetting this violation. In case of Fatehabad Herbal Park, after a PIL

was filed before the Supreme Court, the Government had to notify

the said private land as protected forest vide section 38 of Indian

Forest Act, 1927, in February, 2009, and to transfer its

management to Forest Department. Thus the stand of the officer

was vindicated in both the cases, but even then the charge-sheet

was not filed.

During his posting in Jhajjar, which was the constituency of

the State Chief Minister, the officer detected a multi crore plantation

scam, in which the money from Central Governement/International

Donor agencies, was shown to be disbursed in the name of fake

plantations. In the one of the biggest suspension drives, the officer

suspended ten field staff including two Forest Range Officers and

served termination notice, to forty others. However instead of taking

any action against the Senior Officers involved in the scam, he was

himself transferred to Hisar , within seven months, at the peak of the

investigation into the scam. In Hisar, the officer detected similar

scams of fake plantation with clear cut evidence of involvement of

senior officers. He also detected a license fee scam where the

license of a large plywood unit, belonging to the relative of an

independent M.L.A. supporting the government was given in Rs.

26,000 instead of 22 lacs. The officer got this unit sealed and

cancelled its license – the unit had to finally deposit the requisite

amount in March, 2010 but once again the officer was transferred in

March, 2010 and put without posting because exposing these two

scams, while he was on a training to the USA. After threat of

contempt notice, the state government, gave cadre posting to the

officer after keeping him awaiting posting for full one month but not

to the same post but to sidelined post as DFO (Production) at Hisar.

This was the 12th posting order of the officer in past 4½ years. Thus

every power available with the state government – transfer,

suspension, charge-sheets, fake cases, were used against the

officer.

In June, 2009, the officer was given the Manjnath

Shanmugam Integrity Award by Magsasy Award winner Aruna Roy

at I.I.M. Bangalore. The officer also received RTI awards initiated by

Magsasy Award winner, Arvind Kejriwal. Based on the leading news

item in "The Times of India" issue 1.8.2008, The Prime Minister

Office sought report from the state government about the officer but

it has not been sent so far.

Contrast this with the attitude of state government in case of

multi crore Jhajjar Plantation scam of year 2009, when instead of

taking any action against the DFO responsible for this scam, he was

awarded with prize posting as DFO (T), Gurgaon ; Rs. 25 crore

scam of NREGA by DFO (Ambala) in year 2010 – again no

suspension/charge-sheeting of the DFO and Rs. 20 lacs scam of

Juhi Feeder in Hisar were 200 acres ridge plantation was done on

papers only, under centrally sponsored FDA scheme – again no

action against the DFO.

The petition of the officer against appointing the Inquiry Officer

and quashing the charge-sheet is pending before Ministry of

Environment and Forest.