Barak-Bhuban Wildlife Sanctuary under scanner for alleged diversion of forest land

Guwahati, Nov 19: There seems to be no end to the allegations of anti-environment and non- forest activities inside the reserve forests under the present regime in the State.

Allegation of oil exploration permission illegally granted to a corporate house inside the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary eco-sensitive zone in Jorhat district has recently been doing the rounds. A case on a complaint on illegal construction of roads, bridges, etc., inside the Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur district is pending with the Kolkata-based Eastern Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Further, there are alleged bids to divert forest land for setting up forest battalion camps inside the Geleky Reserve Forest and on the Assam-Mizoram border in Hailakandi district.

Now, an allegation of a bid to divert forest land inside the Barak-Bhuban Wildlife Sanctuary under Cachar Forest Division, for a PWD road, has come up. The wildlife sanctuary also encompasses a hill. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has asked its Shillong regional office-based Deputy Director General of Forests (Central) to take up the allegation of diversion of forest land inside the Barak-Bhuban Wildlife Sanctuary for a PWD road in violation of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 and Vanya Jeev (Sanrakshan) Adhiniyam, 1972, with the Assam Government and submit a factual report to the Ministry 'at the earliest'.

The Ministry letter issued by its Assistant Commissioner (Forestry) Naresh Kumar, is a fallout of the complaint lodged with it by environment activist Rohit Choudhury on September 18 last. Choudhury lodged the complaint on the basis of a media report. He alleged that the construction of the said road will involve extensive hill-cutting, earthwork and clearing of vegetation of the wildlife sanctuary. The several kilometre-long, hard-topped, all-weather road will have cement concrete side-drains, paver block surface and fenders at the road bends.

Moreover, this motorable road will also open the wildlife sanctuary's interior to the petty vendors and shopkeepers, while the picnic goers and merry-makers travelling on bikes and cars will also be able to travel to the sanctuary's hill top with the help of this road, thus violating the serenity and sanctity of the wildlife sanctuary.

Meanwhile, valuable trees of the sanctuary are being axed for using them as firewood, Choudhury said, sounding a note of caution that if immediate steps are not taken to deal this situation sternly, this wildlife sanctuary would soon meet the fate of the Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, where illegally constructed PWD roads, buildings, residential structures, etc., have spelt doom for the latter.

-By Ajit Patowary