Environment / Assam

GOLAGHAT, July 8? The Kohora police arrested six persons and recovered six rhino horns and cash money from Kaziranga National Park area on July 1 last. They were involved in poaching and other anti-social activities also. The miscreants sold a rhino horn weighing 2 kilograms at Rs 30,000 to a businessman. The businessman belonged to Diring area. He later sold the same rhino horn at Rs. 3.50 lakh.

GUWAHATI, July 6 ? Assam?s forest cover has gone down to only 16 per cent of the total geographical area and the State Government has sought the help of the neighbouring Sates for launching a massive Plantation programme, said the Minister of State for Forest, Sri Pradyut Bordoloi. Talking to The Assam Tribune here today, Sri Bordoloi said that though on paper the forest cover in the State as 26 per cent, the actual cover as per the remote sensing data is only about 16 per cent. He said that as per international norms, the forest cover in the plain areas should be at least 33 per cent, while...

GUWAHATI, July 6? About four years back The Assam Tribune carried a newsitem titled Guwahatians burying their own city. The story was about the adverse impact of hill cutting. Today, when a move to politicise hill cutting in the name of providing land to the thaluas (indigenous people) and the ?landless?, is on, we feel it our duty to remind the people of the same things we wrote about four years back. The Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) conducted a study on hill slope destabilisation and its impact on urban drainage planning between May 1993 and October 1997 taking...

NORTH GUWAHATI, July 6? Due to incessant heavy downpours during the past few weeks, there has been a rise in flood waters along the 4.5-km-long historical embankment stretching from the foothills of Monikarneswar to the Dirgheswari pedestals, thereby endangering the lives and properties of the adjacent villages like Rongmahal, Bamunigaon, Fulung, Chandra, Borbaka, etc. Not only that, the entire North Kamrup would also be affected if there occurs any damage to the time-worn ?great royal embankment?. The prestigious IIT campus, bottling plant, Brahmaputra Hydraulic Research Centre, several...

NEW DELHI, July 4 ? The battlelines between the Congress party and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have been drawn over the issue of the eviction drives, with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today charging the regional party with playing politics of opportunism. Describing the AGP?s charge of the Congress party protecting the Bangladeshi immigrants from being evicted, as baseless, false and malicious, Gogoi said that he was in a way glad that the regional party has raked up the issue. ?I want to know what the AGP during its tenure had done to evict these so called Bangladeshis, if there were any. They...

GUWAHATI, July 3 ? Though the expert committee on identification of forest areas, formed as per the directive of the Supreme Court, had expressed concern at the depletion of the forest cover and recommended finalisation of a forestry action plan way back in 1997, the State Government failed to act on time to save the forest cover. The expert committee, headed by the Commissioner and Secretary to the Forest Department, was of the view that the State Government should approach the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Planning Commission with a full-fledged forestry action plan. The...

NEW DELHI, July 2? Assam Government is likely to constitute an expert committee to examine the entire gamut of issues involv-ing encroachment of forest land in the State and formulate an Action Plan. This was conveyed at the Congress party?s Manifesto Review Committee meeting here this morning by Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi. The meeting was attended by Dr. Manmohan Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge for Assam, Mohsina Kidwai, general secretary, Oscar Fernandes besides Assam Congress chief, Paban Singh Ghatowar, took stock of the implementation of the promises made by Congress party in...

GUWAHATI, July 2 ? More than 143 square kilometre of land belonging to the National Parks and wild-life sanctuaries in Assam is under encroachment by doubtful citizens and so far the State Government has not taken any step to evict those people, alleged the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). In a petition to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sri Hitendra Nath Goswami and Sri Dilip Kumar Saikia, the chief whip and secretary of the AGP legislature party, said that encroachment of the forest land by illegal settlers reached menacing proportion. A number of doubtful citizens managed to enter Assam...

SIVASAGAR, July 2 ? Of 3420 hectares of illegally occupied land out of 4,834 hectares of Deroi-Rangoli Reserve Forest in Sivasagar district, 1,111 hectares have been thoroughly cleared of illegal encroachers by forest-officials during the 10-day eviction drive from June 3 to 13 last. The DFO, Forests, Sivasagar informed that most of the encroachers were established businessmen grabbing forest land rampantly in guise of small tea growers. The entire Deroi-Rangoli Reserved Forest was reduced to denuded wasteland area by unscrupulous timber traders who recklessly felled valuable trees...

GUWAHATI, June 25 ? The use of elephants by the Forest Department of the State to demolish illegal structures as part of the Government?s eviction drive against encroachers in forest areas have drawn widespread condemnation from renowned authorities on animal welfare across the globe. The Forest Department has no right to carry out demolition of concrete structures, having corrugated iron sheet roofs through domesticated elephants. It is a violation of Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act 1960, and is a punishable offence, wildlife experts point out.

Dr Daphne...