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HC orders public hearing on forest dept move

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 18 � The Gauhati High Court has directed the State Forest Department to hold a public hearing on its proposed burning of the rhino horns �at the earliest rather than to keep it pending indefinitely�. Due notice should also be given whenever it is decided to hold the public hearing and petitioner Bijoyananda Chowdhury of the Human Elephant Learning Programme (HELP) �may be heard if he so desires,� said the Court in a recent judgement.

The Court direction came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) (No. - 97/2010) filed by Bijoyananda Chowdhury. Chowdhury challenged the Forest Department decision to burn the 1571 rhino horns, weighing 996 kgs, treasured by it. It also decided to go for public hearings on December 14 at the Jalukbari campus of the Assam Forest School to ensure full transparency in the disposal process. However, later the public hearing was postponed.

The decision to hold public hearing was taken in the wake of protests by several organisations which were suggesting transfer of the horns to the museums.

Chowdhury argued in his petition that the unprecedented decision of the Forest Department to burn the rhino horns was taken on the basis of a very poor logic and without calling for any deliberation or debate. Nor the expert views on the subject were sought for in this connection, he argued.

The process undertaken in taking the decision has been very arbitrary and the outcome is going to affect the interest of the public at large. The rhino horns thus proposed to be disposed of are lying in the 10 districts of the State for the past two to three decades.

The reason apparently cited by the Forest Department is that it wants to send a message that the animal part has neither any monetary value nor any medicinal quality.

But Chowdhury argued that the recent scientific developments in the field of conservation and wildlife management suggest that the horns of the rhinoceros are an invaluable source of ecological information about the species and the environment in which it grows. Rhinoceros horns being the agglutinized keratins, they are one of the important means to study the Indian rhinoceros ecology, he argued.

He stated that the entire action was �motivated by malafide intention� and he has reasons to believe that �there has been a conspiracy in the matter and by the burning process all misdeeds may be wiped� and asked for immediate intervention of the court.

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