Environment / Assam

GUWAHATI, May 22 ? With the tiger population showing a steady growth in Kaziranga National Park during the last two decades, the park authority is submitting a proposal to start a ?Project Tiger? programme within the sprawling national park to the Government of India. The director of Kaziranga National Park (KNP), NK Vasu today informed this newspaper that the park authority was spurred by steady increase in the number of the endangered big cat species to go for a tiger project for adequate conservation of it within the park.

The director informed that ?ecological density? of tiger population...

BISWANATH CHARIALI, May 18 ? The historic Gangmouthan in Behali LAC of Sonitpur district, an important Vaishnabite centre set up by Srimanta Sankardev around 1516-1519 AD, is facing the threat of extinction due to large-scale erosion by the Borgang river. Despite erosion continuing for decades, none of the State and the Central governments has taken any concrete step to protect the holy site and the fringe villages from the wrath of the river, alleged the local people. Of late, the river has become furious since 1998 and already rendered about 50 families homeless, besides submerging hundreds...

GUWAHATI, May 17 ? Almost all the 23,191 bigha, 4 katha and 6 lechas of settlement area of the Government land in Guwahati city is under encroachment. The city has in all 24,283 bighas of Government land which include khas, ceiling surplus and VGR land. The city has two revenue circles ? Guwahati and Dispur. All Government land under the Guwahati Circle, including 110 bighas of hilly land in Kharghuli area, are under encroachment, said official circles here today.

However, it is worthmentioning here that the official documents have treated 4,500 bighas of Government land in the city area...

GUWAHATI, May 16 ? Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today stated that the ongoing eviction drive by the State Forest department would continue till all forest areas including wildlife sanctuaries and national parks were cleared of encroachers. Talking to this newspaper, Sri Gogoi said the State government was bound by the Supreme Court directive to purge forest areas of encroachers and could not stop the eviction drive despite the resistance from encroachers or the criticism from different quarters. When his attention was drawn to the incidents where a couple of ruling party MLAs tried to interfere...

GUWAHATI, May 16 ? Continuing with its crackdown on the encroachers in the city reserve forest areas, the district administration today demolished 355 houses in the Lechubagan area at Hengrabari. The eviction drive started in the morning and continued till the evening. Many of the encroachers had already left their homes apprehending eviction. Meanwhile, a delegation of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) led by its city committee president Ramendra Narayan Kalita today submitted a memorandum to the Chief Secretary, decrying the ?inhuman? eviction drive. While reiterating that the AGP was not...

GUWAHATI, May 16 ? The Congress Government in the State is determined to prevent any future encroachment of forest land, stated G C Langthasa, Minister of Forest, Social Forestry, Hill Areas Development Mines and Minerals. In an official release on the status of forest land in the State Langthasa said that the best way to tackle encroachment and check illegal felling of trees is to adopt a carrot-and-stick policy. The masses will have to be enlightened via various social education programmes on the positive as well as negative aspects of these issues. And to make the move practical, the...

GUWAHATI, May 12 ? The Hindu Yuba Chattra Parishad, Asom, has termed the ongoing eviction drive at Batahghuli as a conspiracy aimed at safeguarding a particular section of encroachers while harnessing the indigenous people of the State. In a press release, the parishad alleged that while the authorities concerned had been turning a blind eye to the rampant encroachment by suspected foreigners at Kaziranga, Kurihamari, Kochmara, etc., it showed an unusual enthusiasm in committing atrocities on the local indigenous people under the pretext of eviction at Batahghuli. It is a move to protect the...

GUWAHATI, May 12 ? The state government should immediately start evicting the encroachers from the Kaziranga National Park, demanded the secretary of the Asom Gana Parishad legislature party, Sri Silip Kumar Saikia. The AGP leader today pointed out that even persons of doubtful nationality have encroached into the territory of the National Park and according to reports, sometimes poachers took shelter among the encroachers. He pointed out that by the strength of the supreme court order, the government can easily launch an eviction drive in the National Park. He also demanded that the state...

GUWAHATI, May 11 ? The Forest Department with cooperation from the district administration and police, today resumed the eviction drive in the Batahghuli forest area in the outskirts of the area from early this morning and official sources asserted that the drive would continue in the next few days. After receiving stiff resistance from the people on May 9, the forest officials along with magistrates and police launched the drive at 6 am today and in the whole day, about 140 houses including a number of concrete structures, were demolished. Three elephants were also pressed into service to...

GUWAHATI, April 10 ? Even as politicians and land grabbers are joining hands to clear Guwahati city of its green cover, the State Forest Department is having an extremely challenging task at its hands to protect over 27,508 hectares of reserve forest areas in and around the State?s capital city. Given the violent resistance put up by land grabbers at Batahkhuli area under Khanapara Reserve Forest when a team of Forest Department officials and Forest Protection Force staff went out on an eviction drive yesterday, the State Forest Department is in a soup while trying to comply with Government of...