Environment / Assam

GUWAHATI, May 18 ? Environmentalists here have decried the attempts made by some circles at politicising the issue of eviction conducted by the State Forest Department presently, at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, to free the forest areas of the State, particularly the city, from encroachers. ?An encroacher is an encroacher. There should not be any attempt at distinguishing the encroachers on the basis of their castes, creeds and languages. Politicians should refrain from deriving any political mileage by using the encroachers as tools for attaining their political goals,? the...

SIVASAGAR, April 14 ? One Akon Gogoi (40) of Saraguwa village of Panidihing mouza under Demow Revenue Circle was trampled to death on April 11 by a stray tusker trailing a massive herd of about 40 wild elephants rummaging the fringe villages of Panidihing Reserve Forest for food and shelter. Kanak Pator, another villager had a miraculous escape when the tusker attacked. According to Demow Police, police personnel rushed to the spot immediately and are helping the forest guards now, driving away the elephants. Meanwhile, the irate villagers roughed up the forest guards stationed at Saraguwa to...

GUWAHATI, April 12 ? In the most recent raid conducted by Forest Department and Nagaon district administration on April 5 and 6, besides a Bangladeshi passport, a huge volume of illegal timbers and instruments used in wildlife and forest crimes were recovered from Pub-Putalijhar village located in Gorajan area of Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctury which has been under constant onslaught of criminals enjoying patronage of politicians.

Sources informed that the recovered Bangladeshi passport bearing No. U 0343210 belonged to one Abdus Sattar. It was issued by Md Abdul Malek, Deputy Assistant Director...

NEW DELHI, April 11 ? In an encouraging development, Reliance Assam Petrochemical Limited (RAPL) today submitted Environment Impact Assessment Study report on gas cracker project to the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MOFE). The report prepared by a Bhopal based firm appointed by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was submitted in presence of top RAPL officials including its vice chairman, MC Bora, Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) led by its chairman Hiranya Bora and environment experts of the Ministry.

Submission of the report notwithstanding, AIDC chairman said that the...

GUWAHATI, April 8: Altogether 44,514 tourists including 1,782 foreign tourists visited the Kaziranga National Park in the year 2001-2002, said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. Replying to a question by Girindra Kumar Baruah (AGP) in the State Assembly, Gogoi said that the Forest department earned revenue amounting to Rs 31,07,284 from the National Park in the year.

GUWAHATI, April 8 ? Let the elephants live for the sake of humanity. Do not lead it to extinction, or else all of us will face the same fate, said noted elephant expert Parbati Barua while addressing a Guwahati Press Club function as the Guest of the Month at the Press Club premises here this morning. Smt Barua, a recipient of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)?s 1989 ?Global 500-Roll of Honour? award for elephant conservation, and daughter of the legendary expert on Asian elephant the Late Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji), a descendant of the Gauripur Jamindars, regretted that...

ITAKHOLA, April 8? Thousands of tribal people are earning their livelihood by selling of trees in the reserve forests, despite the Supreme Court ban on felling of trees in the North-east. There are more than 21,596 people settled in the forest areas, cultivating paddy, yam, chilli, etc. When this Correspondent visited the Na-duar Reserve Forest Range in Hatipoti, it was noticed that most of the forest lands have been used by the people settled there. Of late, the forest is much in the news due to exchange of gunfire between timber smugglers and Forests Protection Force personnel. And also the...

NAMERI RESERVE FOREST, April 6 ? Unrestricted felling of trees and encroachment have reduced more than half of the forest in Sonitpur district that boasts of a combined territory of 13 forest reserves. According to officials, 9,376 hectares of Chariduar forest and 9,956 hectares of Gohpur reserve forest have been denuded by militants living in the vicinity of these forests.With encroachments, herds of wild elephant frequently migrated to villages in search for food and as a result destroyed standing crops worth crores of rupees, besides killing 190 people in the last decade in East and West...

GUWAHATI, April 5 ? Queen of elephants Parbati Barua is very sad today. For, the once tender - hearted people of her native State Assam have become intolerant towards the wild elephants. They even do not bother today to poison these majestic animals to death. Fourty seven-year-old, Smt Barua, a descendant of the Gauripur Jamindars and daughter of the legendary elephant expert Late Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji), who has spent almost entire of her life with the elephants and known among the wildlife experts all over the world as the only woman elephant catcher in the world, said, while...

KOKRAJHAR, April 5 ? A full grown adult male Leopard (Panthera-pardus) was killed by a group of people with ulterior motive inside the Chakrashilla Wildlife Sanctuary recently hours before sunset. After getting information, a team comprising members of ?Green Heart? a nature conservation group in the North East and forest officials of Kokrajhar rushed to Salkocha forest range office where the carcass of the leopard was kept. But before the team reached the forest office, different body parts and organs of the leopard like teeth, claws, tip-off the tongue, one eye ball, sex-organ, tail-tip...