Environment / Assam

DIBRUGARH, June 25? A local association here, Youth Leadership Centre, has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the modus operandi of the ongoing eviction drives in the State, which began more than a month ago at Batahghooli in Guwahati. Taking cognisance of the petition, the NHRC has sent notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police of Assam, asking both the authorities to make the government stand clear on the issue. Dr Nabajyoti Hazarika, a cardio-thoracic surgeon at the Assam Medical College here and president of the voluntary Youth Leadership...

GOLAGHAT, June 23? The four reserve forests within Golaghat district are Diphu reserve forest, South Numbor, Rengma and Doyang which are situated on the Nagaland border. In 1963, Nagaland become the 16th State of India. In 1972, the KV Sundaram Commission had submitted its recommendations regarding the identification of the border between Assam and Nagaland. But the Nagaland government ? refused to accept the recommendations of the Sundoram Commission. As a result, the boundaries of Assam-Nagaland remained unsettled till now.

Taking this advantage, the Nagaland encroached large areas of the...

DHUBRI, June 22 ? Forest department of Dhubri started eviction of encroachers from forest lands from June 9 last. On that day Forest department personnel evicted 10 families from their unauthorised occupation of land in the Rajapara proposed reserve forest. Ten huts erected by the families on the encroached land for dwelling purpose were also dismantled. According to Forest department sources, a total of five hectares of land were freed in the process. It is learnt from the Divisional Forest Office source that Dhubri district has a total of 27831.38 hactres of reserve forest areas, and 18587...

KAMALABARI, June 21 ? A herd of wild elephants numbering 50 to 55 has caused extensive damage to ripe Ahu crops in east Majuli. The animals devoured the standing crops over about 600 bighas of land. The villagers of Napamua, Baghargaon, Gayangaon, Chinatoli, Nikinikhowa, Kalanibari, Meragarh, Salmara etc are now spending sleepless nights, protecting their hearth and homes from the onslaught of the animals.

The inhabitants of the area have demanded the subdivisional administration to take adequate measures to drive away the wild beasts from the river island. They further urged the authorities...

GUWAHATI, June 18 ? Considering the burgeoning number of Guwahati population and the subsequent rise in the number of vehicular traffic in the city, the Brahmaputra Board, on a request from the Kamrup district administration, has prepared a project to reclaim a portion of the Brahmaputra bank between Sukreswar Ghat and Nilachal hillock. The project named River Training Measure for Strengthening the Embankment of Guwahati City is estimated to entail a cost of around Rs 35 crore. According to the Brahmaputra Board sources, if implemented, the project will help widening of the Mahatma Gandhi Road...

GUWAHATI, June 15? The dawn to dusk Assam bandh called by the Bhumi Adhikar Ganamancha: Assam (BAGA) today in protest against the eviction drives conducted by the Forest Department to clear State?s forest areas of eviction, passed off somehow peacefully without any report of major untoward incident from any place. However, the bandh had affected normal life partially. In the city, today being a Saturday, Central Government offices remained closed, while attendance in other offices including the State Government offices was thin. The long distance buses connecting the suburban area with the...

DIBRUGARH, June 15 ? Even as the Forest department is busy ?evicting encroachers from reserve forests?, timber smugglers appear to be having a field day in the expansive Upper Dehing reserve forest, under the Digboi forest division. Dozens of valuable ?hard wood? trees have been felled ? illegally of course ? in the past few days. The Supreme Court has banned tree felling in the Upper Assam districts, but this means nothing to the miscreants. Several illegally felled trees have been rolled into the swollen Buri Dehing river, a little upstream of Joypur (near Naharkatia). These are mostly...

GUWAHATI, June 14 ? The eviction drives launched by the Forest Department at the directive of the Supreme Court, to free the State?s forest areas from encroachment may stand suspended during this monsoon and the State Government on June 17 will take stock of the overall situation relating to the on going eviction operations. Disclosing this at a press conference here this afternoon Minister of State for Forests (Independent Charge) Pradyut Bardoloi said that the State Government wanted to adopt a humanitarian approach which made a review of the overall situation a necessity.

While reminded of...

GUWAHATI, June 14 ? Terming the ongoing eviction drive in the State as ?ethnic cleansing?, the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), Karbi Students? Association (KSA) and Karbi Nimso Chingthur Asong (KNCA) today said it was a conspiracy of the Congress regime to drive out the indigenous and tribal population from their forest habitats including tribal belts and blocks by systematically depriving them of long overdue ownership of land, and justifying this anti-people action under the pretext of the Supreme Court directive. In a statement, the organisations alleged that the Statewide...

GUWAHATI, June 12 ? Internationally reputed experts on forest resources and scientists have recommended some urgent steps to be taken by North Eastern States to mitigate the ?catastrophic famine? that is likely to hit the region subsequent to ?gregarious flowering of bamboo? predicted to occur during 2005-2007. Scientists have predicted that gregarious flowering of bamboo will occur in an estimated area of 18,000 square kilometre in the States of Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and parts of Assam and Meghalaya during 2005-2007. The epicentre of bamboo flowering will be Mizoram. It is calculated that...