SRINAGAR, May 9: The Jammu & Kashmir government has blacklisted the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) from all future departmental works, accusing the NGO of “negligible” fieldwork and submission of “secondary data” as original research for a biodiversity plan, officials said on Saturday.
The order, issued by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, terminates a contract awarded in 2022 for the biodiversity assessment of Tatakuti Wildlife Sanctuary, Kherra and Kullian Conservation Reserves.
The agreement was signed on July 7, 2022, with a one-year deadline till July 2023. Officials said the project missed multiple deadlines and produced unsatisfactory drafts despite several extensions.
By February 2024 — over seven months past the deadline — WTI had not submitted its final report. The first progress report arrived on March 11, 2024, but was found to be flawed during scrutiny.
Between March 2024 and September 2025, the department sent multiple communications noting that the agency had not carried out any original study and had merely collected information from scientific papers on species occurrence and density.
A meeting held on June 24, 2026, under the chairmanship of the PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, reviewed the revised draft submitted by WTI on November 3, 2025. Minutes recorded that members “unanimously observed” that the NGO had failed to complete deliverables despite ample opportunities and extended time.
Officials said the fieldwork conducted by WTI was “negligible” in both duration and area covered, and the authenticity of the data was questioned.
Concluding that the draft was “not fit for acceptance,” the Pr. Chief Conservator of Forests blacklisted and debarred WTI from any work of the department, the order said. The government has also initiated recovery of the advance amount paid to the agency.
Wildlife Trust of India has not yet issued a public statement.
With the blacklisting, the Tatakuti Wildlife Sanctuary remains without an approved, science-based conservation plan — nearly four years after the project was scheduled to be completed.
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