Environment / Assam

GUWAHATI, August 8: The product of a protracted popular movement, the Brahmaputra Board, which once gave the people of the Northeast and particularly, Assam, solace that the perennial problems of flood and erosion would be taken care of in a conclusive and speedy manner, has now allegedly started betraying the hopes of the people of the region as a whole. According to allegations, the 17-year-old board has now started handing over the task of implementing major projects, arduously prepared by its technocrats over the years, to other organisations to fulfil the careerist aspirations of some of...

MORIGAON, August 5: Loy Ram Bora is a schoolteacher by profession. But today he is no less than a flood control expert and an anti-erosion specialist. On the banks of the river Brahmaputra in Morigaon and Nagaon districts, he is the most sought-after person for his innovative method to fight erosion, the biggest problem of the area. In the last two decades, 45 revenue villages of Bhuragaon revenue circle were washed away by the mighty Brahmaputra. The Bhuragaon market was 7 km from the bank of decade ago. Today it is just 100 metres away, counting its days. Loy Ram Bora has seen people losing...

GUWAHATI, July 26: Assam can take pride in the fact that out of about 1,000 global population of greater adjutant storks, about 850 are found in the state, according to Prashanta Kumar Saikia of the department of zoology at Gauhati University. Saikia said the bird has been identified as "endangered" globally and is included in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of India (1972). The remaining 150 birds have been spotted in Cambodia spread over about 40 nests. In Assam, the concentration of this species is found in and around the state capital. Dadara near Hajo in Kamrup district has...

GUWAHATI, July 26: The state pollution control board has served notices to the Oil and Natural Gas Commission asking for temporary closure of drilling operations at three cluster drilling sites of ONGC at Rudrasagar in Sibsagar district for not conforming to the pollution control norms. The board has also stopped issuing no-objection certificates to all ONGC drilling sites at Geleki and Rudrasagar oil fields, board sources here said. The PCB steps were initiated after the visit of the board member secretary to the ONGC cluster drilling sites in the first week of July. He found that the...

NEW DELHI, July 20 - In the face of a shrinking forest cover and rising incidents of poaching in Assam, the state government has urged the Centre to stand as guarantor for a Rs 330 crore loan assistance package sought from the World Bank to improve the forest infrastructure. The ambitious proposal submitted to the World Bank in 1997-98, envisages drastic changes in the functioning of the Forest department, including giving more teeth to its fighting arm - the state Forest Protection Force (FPF) to take on the heavily armed poachers. Delighted at the news that project stands a good chance of...

Golaghat, July 11: The forest resources in the state have dwindled during 1994-1999 with valuable forest products, mainly the trees of rare varieties such as, titasopa, lali, bonsom, gamari, gandkoroi etc, felled down illegally by the miscreants who have not only encroached upon the forest lands but also destroyed the forest products. The government enforced laws and several regulations against the felling of trees in the reserve forest areas, but the forest department concerned has been doing nothing against the encroachers and as such as the miscreants have been indulging in illegal timber...