'National security': MP refuses to share autopsy details of Kuno cheetahs
Bhopal: Could post-mortem reports of cheetahs at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park be a matter of national security? The state forest department insists that it is. The MP forest department has refused to disclose post-mortem reports of cheetahs that died at Kuno, since being
Bhopal: Could post-mortem reports of cheetahs at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park be a matter of national security? The state forest department insists that it is. The MP forest department has refused to disclose post-mortem reports of cheetahs that died at Kuno, since being introduced to the wilds as part of an ambitious rewilding programme dubbed as 'Project Cheetah', citing reasons of 'national security' and strategic interests under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.The refusal to
Bhopal: Could post-mortem reports of cheetahs at Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park be a matter of national security? The state forest department insists that it is.
The MP forest department has refused to disclose post-mortem reports of cheetahs that died at Kuno, since being introduced to the wilds as part of an ambitious rewilding programme dubbed as 'Project Cheetah', citing reasons of 'national security' and strategic interests under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.The refusal to share autopsy details of the dead felines at Kuno has raised larger questions over transparency in India's cheetah reintroduction project, with the forest department saying the information could not be shared as it involves sensitive memoranda of understanding (MoU) with foreign countries.The project, as has been widely reported, involved translocation of African cheetahs to India through cooperation with Namibia and South Africa.In a response dated Oct 9 to an RTI query, seeking autopsy details of dead cheetahs, the public information officer in the office of the divisional forest officer (DFO), Kuno National Park, Sheopur, said the reports could not be disclosed under Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act. The provision cited in the response exempts information whose disclosure could prejudicially affect India's sovereignty and integrity, security, strategic, scientific or economic interests, or relations with a foreign state.
The reply came in response to an application filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who had also sought details of foreign tours undertaken by officials in connection with 'Project Cheetah'On the query about foreign tours, the office said no records were available.Dubey said the response left him clueless on how post-mortem reports of animals could have a bearing on national security, adding he wrote back to the forest department asking why records of official foreign visits were unavailable when the project involves cooperation with two African countries.He argued that withholding the reports would make it difficult to establish the scientific causes of the cheetah deaths and fix accountability for lapses, if any.The activist called on the Union environment ministry and the state forest department to bring the post-mortem reports in public domain, along with details of public expenditure on official foreign tours. Dubey alleged that the exemption was being used to restrict public scrutiny of a project that involved the movement of cheetahs by air, across thousands of miles, from Africa to India.The RTI response did not explain why the exemption was invoked, beyond citing the statutory provision. It also did not establish whether other offices withhold foreign-tour records, since the "no records" reply came from the DFO's office alone. The forest department's reasoning beyond the cited section has also not been reported.The reply reached Dubey by email on October 12, the day marking 21 years since the RTI Act came into force.Repeated calls and text messages to senior Kuno officials for a comment on the response to the RTI query went unanswered.
