GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Monday decided to upgrade the Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary into a national park amid a controversy over allowing coal mining inside its area.
“Our government has decided to upgrade the Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary in Assam, which is home to a variety of flora and fauna, to a national park. In a meeting with senior officials today, I have directed them to take necessary steps in this regard,” chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted.
Experts said the state government seemed to have taken the decision to placate public concerns ahead of next year’s assembly polls in the state. Proposed coal mining in wildlife habitats has evoked protests from locals.
In April, the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) had recommended coal mining to be allowed in a portion of the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve provided it fulfilled 28 preconditions.
Spread across 937 sq km, the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve falls in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts and is located withinthe periphery of the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, said to be the largest lowland tropical rainforest in India.
NBWL allowed Coal India Limited (CIL) to conduct opencast coal mining in 98.59 hectares of the reserve forest. CIL had been carrying out mining in 57 hectares of the reserve and the fresh recommendation allowed it to mine coal in another 41 hectares.
Besides elephants, leopards, hoolock gibbons, pangolins and bears, Dehing Patkai is also home to over 200 species of birds, various replies and many species of butterflies and orchids. The habitats of these species as well as the foraging routes of elephants are expected to be affected by coal mining.
Following the NBWL move, opposition surfaced against the proposed coal mining. The Assam government also sent forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya to visit the site in May and he held out an assurance that there would be no compromise in protecting the state’s forests and biodiversity.
Although the NBWL recommendation was passed in April, a right to information (RTI) query revealed that mining in the area had been underway even before the approval came.
The reply to an RTI query by environment activist Rohit Choudhury revealed mining related work had already started in 17 hectares (or nearly 39% area) of the 41 hectares area claimed by CIL to be unbroken.
“It was confirmed that about 9 hectare area out of 41.39 hectares has already been broken up and operated and another approximately 7 hectare area has been cleared,” mentioned a November, 2019 site inspection report by the Shillong office of the ministry for environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC).
North Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of CIL had secured a lease for coal mining in an area of 4 sq miles in the Saleki area of Dehing Patkai for a period of 30 years from 1973. Although the lease expired in 2003, CIL applied for lease/diversion of forest land only in 2012, seeking permission for coal extraction in 98.59 hectares.
Taking up a suo motu (on its own) case against a proposed move to allow coal mining, the Gauhati high court issued notices to the Centre, the Assam government, Coal India and others last month.
Hearing two public interest litigations (PILs) on the same issue, a division bench of chief justice Ajay Lamba and justice Soumitra Saikia said the court too had taken up the matter suo motu.
The court issued notices to the Centre, the Assam government, CIL, NBWL, mines and mineral department of Assam, the home department, Assam Police and others and fixed July 20 as the next date of hearing of the case. All respondents have been asked to file affidavits by July 14.
