GUWAHATI, Aug 13 - The State government has constituted a Task Force Committee under the chairmanship of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Wildlife for preparation of the Comprehensive Action Plan for the �No Development Zone� of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP). The decision to constitute the Committee was taken in compliance with the Judgment dated September 7, 2012 in Original Appeal No. 38/2011 (Rohit Choudhury-versus-Union of India and Others).
The NGT had directed, through that order, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) along with the Government of Assam to prepare a Comprehensive Action Plan and Monitoring Mechanism for implementation of the conditions stipulated in the 1996 MoEFCC Notification specifying the �No Development Zone� and for inspection, verification and monitoring of the prohibitions imposed in the notification referred to above, as well as the provisions of Rule-5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Reacting to the State government�s decision to constitute the Task Force Committee, Rohit Choudhury told this newspaper that the decision came after almost three years of the NGT order. No representative from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been included in the Task Force Committee. The presence of NTCA representative is necessary, as the KNP is also a Tiger Reserve and it is funded by the NTCA, he said.
The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Golaghat has also not been included in the Committee. As most of the area of the �No Development Zone� comes under Golaghat Division, the Golaghat DFO should have been made a member of the Committee, he said. Besides, the Committee should have experts and scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India on it, he added.
