4 min readDehradunApr 27, 2026 05:39 PM IST
The wedding ceremony of the son of Uttarakhand’s social welfare minister in a temple in the core zone of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, without permission from the forest department, has sparked a row in the state.
The wedding ceremony of Anuj, the son of minister Khajan Dass, was conducted on Sunday at the Sureshwari Devi temple in Haridwar. However, according to the forest department, no formal permission had been granted for the event.
For his part, Dass said he has been visiting the temple for the past 10 years, and thousands of devotees continue to go there regularly. “Arrangements are usually such that no disturbance is caused; there is no noise, and people often gather there as an expression of their faith. I had spoken to the forest officials, but they did not mention the need for a formal approval. Maun sehmati hui thi (there was a tacit consent), and around 200 guests had been invited for the event. A havan kund and a pandal had been arranged, and we had tried to get silent generators,” he told The Indian Express.
Sources said that as many as 722 people visited the temple last Sunday, while 850 people were recorded on the day of the wedding. A senior officer in the department said that in March, Dass, then an MLA, had met with him while on a field visit to the area where the temple stood. “We spoke for a while, and he mentioned that his son was getting married and they planned to visit the temple for the deity’s blessings. I congratulated his son, and that was taken as a tacit consent,” he said.
Admitting that no formal consent could be finalised, Dass pointed out that a large number of people visit the place, especially during Navratri, and claimed that wild animals do not enter the premises. “No explicit permission was discussed, but had I been aware of any requirement for prior permission, I would have moved the ceremony to any other of the hundred temples in Haridwar,” he said. Dass also said that he had organised a bhandara earlier without any issue and that he respects the norms in ecosensitive zones. About the case registered under the Wildlife Protection Act against the temple management, Dass said that they were not at fault. “I respect environmental norms and laws, but the matter now appears to be a political conspiracy,” he said.
Rajaji Tiger Reserve acting Director Rajiv Dhiman said that a case has been registered against the temple committee for the offence. “The temple committee did not inform us of the event. We are also investigating the roles of officials and why no action was taken prior to the event,” he said, adding that he was not informed of the event.
Dhiman also said that generators, coolers, tents, and chairs at the venue were removed when they came to know of the incident.
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Ashish Marwari, the general secretary of the temple committee, claimed that the minister had informed the department and the committee days before the wedding. “His son had been unwell, and the minister had vowed to get his son married before the deity. The phera was conducted after the puja, and prasad was served after the ceremony. A few coolers had been brought to the area because of the heat, but the generators and coolers were removed soon after. It was a small, peaceful ceremony,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress questioned the precedent set by the minister. “The state minister is arranging a wedding in a protected area with a DJ and generators. Uttarakhand is already plagued by human-wildlife conflicts. What happens when we take the noise and chaos to them? It is the fault of the department as much as the minister’s. If you cannot prevent a minister from conducting a wedding in a protected area, how will you ensure people are kept away? How does the law apply differently?” said party spokesperson Garima Dasauni.
