Protecting Wildlife
The death of eight elephants in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, likely due to consuming fungus-infected kodo millet, underscores a profound and growing challenge in India’s conservation landscape.
Days after the alleged disappearance of 26 girls from a children’s home here, they were found safe with their families even as the Madhya Pradesh police arrested the director of the shelter home on charges of forced conversion and violation of child rights on Monday.
Three officials of the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) were also suspended on charges of failing to monitor the shelter home’s activities.
The police registered an FIR against Anil Mathew, director, Aanchal, under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom Act 2021and the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, on Sunday. He was subsequently arrested.
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The court rejected Mathew’s bail plea and sent him to jail.
Bhopal Collector Kaushalendra Vikram Singh had ordered an inquiry into the matter. He suspended WCD project officer Komal Upadhyay, WCD supervisor Manjusha Rai, and former project officer Brijendra Pratap Singh on charges of failing to monitor the activities of the children’s home, Aanchal, a non government organization (NGO) located in Parwaliya area on the outskirts of Bhopal.
The matter came to light after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) conducted an inspection of the shelter home on January 4 after receiving complaints of harassment and forced conversion.
According to sources, none of the 26 girls complained about forced conversion or harassment in their statements given to police.
Some media reports also quoted the NGO coordinator, Sanjeev Joshi, as saying that the facility is a hostel but was wrongly described as an orphanage. He also claimed that the inhabitants of the shelter home are not orphans and that the NGO offered free education to children of slum dwellers and daily-wage labourers.
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