NGT seeks affidavit on action taken over encroachment at Assam’s reserve forests
Assam filed an affidavit last month saying nearly 300,000 people had encroached on parts of three protected forests, and built houses besides cultivating betel nuts, tea, etc
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Union government to file an affidavit on action taken over large-scale encroachment at Assam’s Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary (SRWS) and the Charduar and Balipara reserve forests.
In an order on Wednesday, NGT judicial member Ait Sthalekar and expert member Arun Kumar Verma questioned how the encroachment was permitted over the years and decades. It directed the Assam government to file a fresh affidavit over the matter as an earlier one filed was defective. The NGT will take up the matter next on November 7.
The Assam government filed an affidavit last month saying nearly 300,000 people had encroached on parts of the three protected forests, and built houses besides cultivating betel nuts, tea, etc. The affidavit added around 50,241 hectares of the total 73,525 hectares had been encroached.
In April, the state government said schools, a five km-long road, a sluice gate on a river, a tea garden, wells, and polling stations had come up inside the sanctuary and the Charduar forest.
One Dilip Nath filed an application with NGT last year alleging violations of the Forest (Conservation) Act at the sanctuary. He pointed out the government’s construction activities and illegal encroachments.
SRWS, which is spread over 220 sq km on the Himalaya foothills near Assam’s border with Arunachal Pradesh, is home to mammals, birds and reptiles, tigers, elephants, hornbills, pelicans and pythons.