GUWAHATI, May 22? For the forest guards of Assam, armed with outdated weapons, it is becoming impossible to deal with heavily armed militants, who frequent the reserve forests as well as poachers who have also started using sophisticated weapons like AK Series rifles. The Minister of State for Forest Pradyut Bordoloi admitted that the forest guards are hopelessly under-equipped to check felling of trees and movement of militants. For example, most of the forest guards in Kaziranga National Park are armed with only .315 rifles, while, in a recent incident of poaching, the poachers used AK-47 rifles. But incidents of poaching of one horned rhinos in the National Park has come down only because of the dedication and bravery of the staff who work round the clock for the protection of animals.
At one point of time in the 1980s, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) set up full fledged camps in the reserve forests at the State, while Bodo militants caused havoc in the Manas National Park in the early 1990s. Sri Bordoloi said that at present, the Government does not have any information of militants setting up full-fledged camps in the reserve forests of the State. ?But we have information about movement of militants in the reserve forests, particularly in The Assam-Arunachal Pradesh and Assam-Bhutan border areas but the forest guards are not equipped to check the movement of militants. We also have information that in some of the reserve forests, the militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) collect regular ?tax? from the encroachers,? he added.
Sri Bordoloi admitted that the Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) is also understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with the situation. He revealed that the present strength of the force is about 600 men and they are also using ?vintage? weapons. Sri Bordoloi recently met the Union Forest Minister with a Rs 12 crore proposal to modernise the force and to create a new battalion of the force. Under the proposal, the Force would be provided with modern weapons including SLRs to prevent felling of trees and poaching. ?Modernisation of the forest protection force is a must to save our forest resources and we hope that the Central Government will give due consideration to our proposal?, he added.
The Forest Minister admitted that illegal felling of trees is going on despite a ban in this regard and efforts of the Forest Department. Over the years, the Forest Department alone could not practice the forest resources but there is a ray of hope as the Government?s efforts to involve the people living in the fringe areas in forest protection started receiving positive response. Sri Bordoloi said that though felling of trees is banned, no effort was made to meet the demand for timber. According to a tentative estimate, the State requires 1400 truck loads of firewood per day, while, a huge amount of timber is also required for all construction works, furnitures etc. As no step was taken to meet the demand officially, the illegal felling of trees is going on unabated all over the State. He revealed that as per the new scheme, the persons who get themselves admitted in forest protection works would also get the benefits from forests. He said that Forest Development Agencies are being formed at Territorial Forest Division level, while, joint forest management groups are being formed involving the people living in the fringe areas of the reserve forests at the grassroot level. He said that the response of the people is very positive and the Government has decided to send the funds received from the Centre directly to the Forest Development agencies.
Sri Bordoloi said that efforts are on to go for fast growing varieties and commercially viable trees in the vacant forest land. He pointed out that sal trees take 70 to 120 years to mature fully and under the present circumstances it would not be economically viable to go for sal plantation. ?We have decided to go for fast growing and commercially viable varieties like sandal wood, agaru, paulina etc. so that members of the joint forest management committees get the benefits early. We also have to go for scientific recycling of the forest resources instead of going for a blanket ban on felling, which encourages illegal felling,? he said. The forest Minister also asserted that the Government would not allow further encroachment in the forest areas and eviction of encroachers is going on in phased manner all over the State.