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.