Environment / Assam

KOKRAJHAR, Jan 2 – Dwellers along the Sankoch river in Assam have urged the authorities concerned to check the unabated encroachment by migrants from West Bengal especially in the forest lands on the Assam side along the West Bengal boundary. The public here have asked the State Government to take up the issue with the West Bengal authorities.

According to the information available here, a large portion of forest land under Ripu Mauza No. 1 lat around 113 No. pillar (khuti) of Gossaigaon sub-division of about 1000 Bighas of forest land has been under encroachment of the neighbouring State...

NEW DELHI, Dec 30 — Flood control works in Assam is likely to hit as funds were curtailed by Planning Commission because of a delay by the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) in submitting schemes for approval by competent authority. The MoWR did not submit flood control schemes among other critical proposals for approval leading to a drastic cut in budgetary allocation. As against a proposal for allocation of Rs 1,063.82 crore, all that the Ministry get was Rs 550 crore, which is almost half of what was sought. The reason the Planning Commission said was the apprehension that a higher...

GUWAHATI, Dec 28 – Illegal felling of trees in the vast tracts of reserve forest along the Assam-Meghalaya border to the south and south-west of Guwahati is going on unabated, exposing the rich, biodiversity zone with its unique flora and fauna to the gravest possible danger. That the smugglers are having a free run should be evident from the fact that an area of 25 sq km of the Garbhanga reserve forest which is among the biggest protected areas in Kamrup district with a total area of 188.6 sqkm, has been totally degraded, at Luki. An area where the smugglers’ writ runs and forest personnel...

NEW DELHI, Dec 27—With the floods just a season away, the Centre has cleared several flood control and anti-crosion projects including a proposal to protect Dhubri and South Salamara areas. The projects sanctioned by the Planning Commission in the past few days are expected to be completed by March 2004. According to sources, the latest in a series of projects cleared by the commission included raising of Brahmaputra dyke from Biswanath to Panpur at an estimated cost of Rs 4.87 crore. Another project cleared the same day included anti-erosion measures on river Brahmaputra at Assam Bangiya...

GUWAHATI, Dec 26 – The Central government’s promise of providing an amount of Rs 500 crore during the 9th Five Year Plan period for taking up flood control measures remained on papers only as the State received only Rs 54 crore during that period, highly placed Flood Control Department sources said. Sources told The Assam Tribune that during the last two years of the 9th Plan period, the Department did not receive any money from the Central Water Resources Ministry. The funding pattern for the 10th Five Year Plan period is yet to be finalised, but the Department has submitted detailed project...

Guwahati, Dec. 25: The Orang National Park authorities have successfully tackled the poaching menace with not a single rhino falling prey to poachers over the past one-and-a-half years.

Officials said the park, which had lost about 50 per cent of its rhino population between 1994 and 1999, has been more successful in guarding its inmates than its famed counterpart in Kaziranga.

The rhino population in the park had gone down to 50 from nearly 100 between 1994 and 1999, triggering alarm among the forest officials. The 1999 census had put the rhino population of Orang at 46.

Chief wildlife...

SILCHAR, Dec 23 – The Governor of Assam recently appointed honorary wildlife wardens in all the 23 districts of the State for the period of two years in exercising of the powers conferred under Section 4 (1)(b) (bb) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The primary responsibility of these wardens will be to assist the District Administration on all aspects relating to wildlife in their respective district. They will, in particular, assist the Divisional Forest Officer on the matters such as enforcement of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, creating...

GUWAHATI, Dec 22— Parbati Barua, the queen of elephants, has one more call for her. This time from Chattisgarh Government to catch the four wild tuskers in Laxmipur area of Raigarh district. These wild tuskers have been creating havoc in Chattisgarh for quite a long time. An Indian Express report from Raipur said yesterday that the Chattisgarh Government had drawn up a Rs 36 lakh plan to catch the elephants with the help of Smt Barua. The operation to catch the elephants was scheduled to begin in October last after the pachyderms killed five persons and caused heavy damage to crops in the...

DIBRUGARH, Dec 21— The proposed Joydehing wildlife sanctuary, which is yet to be notified by the Government despite a public assurance by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi himself more than a year ago, now faces another hurdle. It is authoritatively learnt that the State Government wants the Upper Dehing reserved forest to be excluded from the purview of the proposed sanctuary. The three contiguous reserved forests, namely Dirak, Joypur and Upper Dehing, comprising an area of about 500 square kilometers are one of the last surviving virgin rain forests in the world. The area has a rich biodiversity...

GUWAHATI, Dec 19 – Worried over the shrinking forest cover and growing incidents of elephant depredation, the Centre has released Rs 1.19 crore for the state forest department. The fund has been released in order to develop the national parks and sanctuaries scattered in various places of the State. According to official sources, Rs 54.25 lakh has been released for maintenance and development of national parks and sanctuaries while Rs 69.70 lakh has been allotted for Project Elephant. The State has been witnessing a series of elephant depredation problems for the last several years due to the...