KAZIRANGA, March 31 - Various civil societies and wildlife conservation organizations have appealed to the State administration not to allot any government land for any kind of permanent construction in Puranbangala-Doigurung area in Golaghat district until and unless a comprehensive survey is done to identify the important and critical elephant corridors in the said areas.
Secretary of Kaziranga Wildlife Society Mubina Akhtar said, �civil administration and Forest department of Golaghat must identify the critical elephant corridors through a comprehensive survey before allotting any government land for concrete construction. The government must come forward and declare Deopahar as Reserve Forest (RF) immediately.�
It is worth mentioning that whole Numaligarh and adjoining areas including Puranbangala to Doigurung river serve as a traditional corridor for wild elephants.
Complying with the order of National Green Tribunal (NGT), the district administration of Golaghat in coordination with Golaghat Forest division had demolished a concrete wall made by Numaligarh Refinery on the very corridor of wild elephants recently. The move was welcomed by many wildlife NGOs including Kaziranga Wildlife Society, Wildflower and Aranya Surakha Committee. Earlier, there had been continuous man-elephant conflicts in the area because of the wall.
KWS secretary Akhtar said that administration must take initiative to carry out the survey at Deopahar and Kalioni hills which happened to the habitat of wild elephants.
Deopahar has a total of 134 hectares of land near Numaligarh which was proposed to be declared as Reserve Forest in 1999. But till today nothing has materialised to declare the same as a full-fledged Reserve Forest. Deopahar is also important from the archeological point of view. Many areas near Numaligarh like Talgaram, Puranbangala, Doigurung, Falangoni under greater Marangi in Golaghat district serve as important migratory routes of wild elephants.
