Sonitpur forest cover dwindling at alarming rate

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 Sontipur divisions. This started one of the worst man-elephant conflicts in the area with villagers adopting a cruel way to poison the elephants which resulted in the death of more than 30 pachyderms last year sparking off vehement protests all over by outraged animal lovers. The Assam Government is yet to compensate the farmers whose crops have been destroyed by the marauding pachyderms but the Indian chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has sanctioned Rs 7.5 lakh as one-time compensation to the farmers of West Sonitpur. An hour?s drive from Tezpur, Sonitpur district headquarters, towards the Nameri Reserve Forest will take one to the worst affected areas. Denuded expanse welcomes the visitors even as hapless forest officers say there is no way of checking the menace. ?These people (encroachers) think that we are their enemies and want to grab their land and the very sight of a forestman can create trouble,? says Rubul Pathak, ranger of Chariduar forest range. While regretting that the forest personnel were not equipped with requisite weaponry and manpower to counter the threats of the encroachers, Pathak said, ?Sometimes the forest personnel remained mute spectators when trees were destroyed.? ?However, we carry on patrolling to the best of our efforts and seize any objectionable materials but that is not enough to counter the menace,? he said. ?There may be a sinister design as people who had encroached on forest areas were not landless and had their home elsewhere in the State, said a government official on conditions of anonymity. The government had plans to erect a 90-km-long electric wire fence inside the Nameri National Park that failed to come up. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) FA Ahmed said under the Project Elephant scheme the Central Government had sanctioned the fencing project at a cost of Rs 15 lakh last year. There was some initial work on the project but nothing moved further. Ahmed claimed that ?due to lack of cooperation from the locals and peculiar behaviour of the roaming wild herds of elephants the project failed to take off.? Local residents objected and the behaviour of the wild pachyderms to destroy any barrier to their movement by hurling uprooted trees made things impossible, Ahmed said. The wire fencing was supposed to be constructed in the national park to prevent the movement of elephants and the officials do not rule out the possibility of lesser number of casualty to the animals had the project been implemented. However battery enlargers, solar plates and other accessories are still their at the government?s disposal which could be put to use, he said. The DFO says that the local people should be more educated and awareness should be created to preserve and protect the forest environment. ?It is indeed a sorry sight and it is ultimately the awareness among the people that could improve the plight,? Ahmed said. However, he said, a Bangalore-based firm had erected a fence in the Chariduar range at a cost of Rs 3 lakh which was sanctioned by the Centre in 1998. The fence still exists at the Dharikata area, he said. With several inter-state problems between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh still existing, people from the State had built several unauthorised structures and encroached on forest areas, officials said.