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 environmentalists said while talking to The Assam Tribune.
Member-Secretary of the WWF, NE Region, Dr Anil Goswami said that encroachment on the reserved forest, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks (NPs) in the State was posing a serious threat to the bio-diversity of the region and it was especially serious with regard to the habitats of some of the endangered flora and fauna species. This is posing serious ecological stress on the whole region (NE), he said. Encroachment on the city hills and reserved forest areas has serious implications for the stability of the contours of the hills and this will lead to some unwarranted hazards for the city, he said, adding, there should not be any attempt at politicising the issue of eviction of these encroachers from the city?s hill and forest areas.
Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences, Gauhati University, Dr Dulal Chandra Goswami commended that though late, the ongoing drive against the encroachers was a positive development towards restoring the city?s environment and ecology. ?We wish that this type of steps are continued without any disruption and the public should extend unstinted support to this type of activities for environmental protection and greater weal of the society,? he said. He also regretted that so much of time had been allowed by the authorities to the encroachers for consolidating their position and thus making it easier for them and their political supporters to give it a ?human face? to their out and out wrong doings.
?It is also sad to note that there exists a total disregard to the existing rules and regulations from the public as well as from the political leaders of our society, which is partly due to the lack of proper application of the rule of law by the powers that be,? he said. He also called upon the political parties and other circles with vested interest to desist from aiding and abetting the wrong-doings like encroachments, for the greater interest of environment and society. Moreover, he said, Guwahatians should also be more careful and conscious so that nobody can exploit their gullibility and ignorance and precipitate a chaos to their own disadvantage and to that of the society at large.
A leading popular science activist and former president of Assam Science Society Dr Kulendu Pathak, who is also president of the State Unit of the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), said that forest areas of the city as well as the State needed to be freed from encroachment. There should not be any attempt at politicising the issue. The eviction drive should cover all major eco-systems in the State, he said. Save Guwahati, Build Guwahati president Dhiren Barua said that Guwahati and for that matter the rest of the State, should not be allowed to be held to ransom by the encroachers and their supporter politicians by the conscientious people of the State.
?We will not remain silent in case the political parties try to politicise the issue which will affect the interest of the vast majority of the law-abiding people. Above all, Guwahati and the State should get the environment and ecology restored and there can not be any compromise on the issue. We also appeal to the Government to carry on the eviction drive in a more cautious manner, doing more home work, so that all scopes of harassment to innocent people, while carrying out such operations, could be eliminated,? Sri Barua said. He also reminded those forces which are trying to create a confusion and thus to reap a harvest in the political arena, by lending support to the encroachers and raising a hullabaloo of the municipal holding numbers and roads, electricity and telephone connections provided to the encroachers in a bid to justify their (encroacher) wrong-doings, that there were court verdicts rejecting such pleas as untenable.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, while addressing a rally at the Judges? Field here today, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Congress Government in the State under his stewardship, said that it was the State?s successive Governments? responsibilities to check decimation of the State?s forest cover. Now that the Supreme Court has issued the directive, the State Government is to carry out the eviction operations, he said. He also commented that the decimation of the State?s forest cover was such that it had come down to 20 per cent of the State?s geographical area, against the stipulated 33 per cent.