The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) recently approved a proposal concerning the usage of 98.59 hectares of land for the extraction of coal by Coal India Limited belonging to the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Reserve.
As per sources, On April 7, the Standing Committee of the Environment Ministry’s National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) had discussed a proposal for the use of 98.59 hectares of land from the Saleki proposed reserve forest land for a coal mining project by North-Easter Coal Field (NECF), a unit of Coal India Limited. The meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate change Prakash Javadekar through a video conference due to the nationwide lockdown.
On Wednesday, in view of the public opposition to the alleged attempt of coal mining in Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed Environment and Forests Minister Parimal Suklabaidya to visit the sanctuary for assessing the situation on the ground. He added that the environment and forests minister will conduct a field study of the situation and will inform the government. Sonwal added that his government is committed to protecting the environment and biodiversity of the state and will not compromise with its stand in the name development initiatives.
Meanwhile, environmentalists have started their protest against the decision of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) for coal mining in Saleki of the Dehing Patkai Reserve. An eastern Assam-based environmental activist Rohit Choudhury filed a Right to Information application into the Tikok coal mining project in the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve. RTI revealed that a substantial chunk of “unbroken” forest land has already been mined and cleared.
Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary also known as ‘the Amazon of the East’ is located in Assam Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts. The Dehing Patkai covering an area of 111.19 sq km of rainforest and several reserve forests was declared as a wildlife sanctuary in 2004. It is a home of semi-evergreen and lush green flora and rare fauna like Chinese pangolin, flying fox, slow loris etc. It is the only sanctuary in India which is home to seven different species of wild cat’s tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, golden cat, jungle cat and marbled cat.
The Dehing Patkai Forest is one of the most important forests of Assam but the region is already threatened by highly polluting industries such as coal mines, oil refineries and gas drilling adversely affecting the biodiversity in the region.
