GUWAHATI, May 19 - The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today strongly opposed the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)�s decision to allow coal mining in the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary and urged the government to immediately roll back the decision in order to save the Dehing Patkai, which is also known as the Amazon of the East.
Criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government for completely ignoring the catastrophic consequences of the decision, the students� body said that the Union government only wants the resources of Assam and has no genuine compassion towards the people of the State.
�Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, which also is a rainforest, is a hub of biodiversities in the entire region. NBWL permission to Coal India Limited to carry out extraction in 98.59 hectares of the rainforest�s land, will completely destroy Dehing Patkai. Illegal mining has already damaged the rainforest,� AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi stated.
AASU also criticized the Union government�s decision to give eight oil fields of Assam to private parties.