Wildlife sanctuary upgraded amid row

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 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 reptiles 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 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.