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Land allotment to NDRF near Amchang peeves forest dept

By Ajit Patowary

GUWAHATI, Nov 25 - The State government�s decision to allot a plot of land contiguous to the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for setting up a camp has created a controversy.

Forest department officials are of the opinion that the plot of land allotted to the NDRF for establishing its camp is covered mainly by teak and some other associated plant species.

This teak plantation area is frequented by wild animals like elephants, deer, leopards, jungle cats and various other wild species. The teak plantation of the area is �older than 45 to 50 years and it is fully qualified to be a forest area,� said Range Forest Officer of Khanapara Wildlife Range, in his letter (KWL/29/Survey/ESZ/2020/224, dated July 4, 2020) to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Guwahati Wildlife Division.

The Range Officer, in his above letter, obtained by RTI-cum-environment activist Rohit Choudhury through an RTI application, then said, �Therefore, I would like to request you to take concrete action to make it a part of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary and save this extendable lush green forest...�

Again, on September 19, 2020, the Range Officer lodged a complaint with the DFO, Guwahati Wildlife Division (Letter No KWL/49/NDRF/2020/319), that the NDRF has been using the 150-metre portion of the Forest department road �without getting any permission from the (Forest) department.�

They have started using the road forcibly, asserting they have got permission from the Forest department to do so. To back their claim, they are using a copy of the minutes of a meeting held on September 5, 2020 at the conference hall of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Wildlife, on the issue of using this portion of the road. In fact, the NDRF was asked to submit a proposal on the use of this portion of the Forest department road temporarily.

The Range Officer, therefore, requested necessary instructions from the higher authorities as early as possible, so that he does not have to face any untoward incident involving wild animals in the future.

At the September 5, 2020 meeting, the PCCF (Wildlife) told the NDRF representatives that the NDRF had been allotted land right at the centre of Block-II of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, which is surrounded on three sides by the Sanctuary, where wildlife activities, specially of the elephants, are very high.

Under such circumstances, the residents of the NDRF campus are likely to face elephant depredation problem on a daily basis in the future, similar to that of the residents of the Narengi Military Station, the PCCF (Wildlife) said.

He also warned that even during the initial construction period in the NDRF area, wild animals, particularly elephants and leopards, would be disturbed and it may lead to serious man-animal conflicts in the fringe areas of the Sanctuary, resulting in loss of human life, domestic animals and property.

In reply to the proposal of the NDRF to divert the Sanctuary land in between Pillar No.24 and 25 for their approach road, the PCCF said the Forest department could not agree with this proposal. The meeting decided, among others, that the NDRF would submit a proposal for using the 150-metre stretch of the Forest department road, between Pillar No.24 and 25, temporarily during the construction phase, and that too, between dawn and dusk.

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