Environment / Assam

NEW DELHI, May 9 ? The Supreme Court today cleared the last hurdle in construction of the Rs 7000 crore Subansiri Lower Power Project by giving its seal of approval to the project. The apex court?s clearance was essential for the project to get off ground as it has major environment implications including submersion of a portion of a wildlife sanctuary and diversion of a river.

A three-member Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice BN Kirpal, Justice Arijit Passyat and Justice HK Sema responded favourably to the pleas of the Additional Solicitor General, who told the court that the...

GUWAHATI, May 6 ? Sharp decline in the population of endangered river, dolphins, locally known as ?sihu?, has prompted the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to initiate action to declare Kulsi river, the only known abode of resident river dolphins in the world, as a wildlife sanctuary for effective conservation of the species. Sources informed that the Union Ministry vide letter No. 6-13-114/2001/RONE/AS/2702-4 asked the Principal Secretary, Environment and Forests, Government of Assam, to carry out population estimation of river dolphins in Kulsi river and consider declaring the area...

GUWAHATI, May 2 ? Wildlife personnel in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) are engaged in a peculiar battle with wild weeds growing in different corners of the park in addition to their primary responsibility of protecting the faunal resources. A sizeable area of grasslands inside the sprawling national park is now under threat from invading wild weeds particularly flowering mimosa creeper much to the worry of the park authority. The director of the national park, N K Basu, informed The Assam Tribune that about 128 hectares of grassland area in the wildlife protection area had been invaded by weeds...

GUWAHATI, May 1 ? Assam accounts for 9.4 per cent of the total flood ? prone area of the country and every year, floods cause heavy damage to the economy of the State. The National Flood Commission estimated the area vulnerable to floods in Assam as 31.60 lakh hectares against 335.16 lakh hectares in the whole country.

According to the latest report of the Economic Survey of Assam, Successive waves of devastating floods every year virtually destroyed the economy of the State. The main factors for floods in Assam include adverse physiography of the region, heavy rain fall, excessive...

GUWAHATI, April 30 ? There was a surplus rainfall of plus seven per cent between March 1 and April 24 this year in the State. There was also an improvement in the overall rainfall situation in the entire NE region during this period. But, this rainfall, however, does not have a clear-cut co-relation with the monsoon rainfall, said Meteorology office (Met) sources here today. The rainfall witnessed by the region now is pre-monsoon rainfall and the latest spurt in rainfall activities is due to the western disturbances prevailing since the last week of March. Conditions were also made favourable...

GUWAHATI, April 30? The elephant population in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) has increased to 1007 since the year 1997 as per the latest pachyderm counts carried out in the park during March this year. The director of Kaziranga Park yesterday informed The Assam Tribune that the wildlife protection area has registered an increase in pachyderm population by 62 members over the 1997 census figure of 945. The last elephant census in KNP was carried out during March 17 to 23 this year, and the final count done on March 23 put the number of pachyderms at 1007. During the elephant census this year...

GUWAHATI, April 29 ? A stake-holders meeting on Majuli Island World Heritage Site proposal held at the Circuit House here today decided to accept the State Department of Culture as the nodal agency and HS Das, Finance Commissioner of the State, as the nodal officer for the purpose of preparing the nomination dossier of the island which to reach the UNESCO headquarters at Paris latest by May 2004. The meeting held under the auspices of the UNESCO Association, Guwahati and conducted by its secretary general Dr Aswini Sarma, also decided to include the State departments like the Flood Control...

GUWAHATI, April 28 ? Police today registered a case against a group of trouble-makers allegedly led by ruling party MLA of Sootea constituency Praneswar Basumatary after they had set fire to an anti-poaching camp at Ranggajan Chapori inside Nameri National Park in Sonitpur district this morning. A case against the group, including the MLA, has been registered in Rangapara police station under Section 147/148/149/353/447/436 & 506 of IPC on the basis of FIR lodged by forest department staff in Nameri Park.

Meanwhile, in a press release, Aaranyak, a frontline bio-diversity conservation society...

GUWAHATI, April 21? The population of river dolphins (locally called sihu or sisu) a highly endangered aquatic mammal is declining alarmingly. The 2002 river dolphin census carried out by the Dolphin Conservation Society (DCS) with support from the WWF-India, has recorded only 198 dolphins in the Brahmaputra river, with 89 adults, 60 adolescents and 49 calves. The previous census in 1997 had counted 218 dolphins. The chairman of the DCS, Sri Sujit P Bairagi, told The Assam Tribune that depletion of the dolphin population in the Brahmaputra was primarily due to large-scale poaching for its...

GUWAHATI, April 18 ? The US Fish and Wild Life Service, a leading organisation of United States (US), has decided to sanction $30,000 for conservation of elephants of the State. The funds have been sanctioned for the two project-Kaziranga National Park and Digboi area. The organisation has been extending financial assistance for conservation of wildlife which are facing extinction due to depletion of forest cover.

Highly-placed forest department sources today disclosed that they had submitted two projects to the organisation in view of growing depredation caused by the elephants and it agreed...