A CORRESPONDENT
NAHARKATIA: A news was published with the headline 'Unabated deforestation across Jeypore Rainforest causes concern' in The Sentinel on August 5, 2020. After this, Deputy Commissioner of Dibrugarh, Pallav Gopal Jha called a public meeting in Jeypore Forest range office on Thursday to discuss aspects related to conservation and development of Jeypore Rainforest as a tourist destination.
Forest officials were strictly instructed to identify the routes used by miscreants for entry and exit in the rainforest and to identify the miscreants involved in deforestation by carry out extensive patrolling in mission mode in collaboration with the police. DC Jha also promised to provide drone cameras to monitor the ongoing deforestation and illegal activities in the forest. Jha also directed Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Thapa to conduct a meeting with all saw mill owners and asked him to warn them as if they were involved in any such illegal timber work, strict legal action would be taken against the mills.
When the matter of hand-operated tree-cutting machines kept in the nearby villages of Jeypore Rainforest, which are generally used by the vicious circle to cut valuable trees inside the rainforest, was raised, DC Jha instructed Circle Officer of Naharkatia Revenue Circle, Bikram Chetry to issue an order under 144 IPC and with the help of gaon burahs to make it compulsory to hand over the hand-operated wood cutting machines kept in nearby villages of Jeypore Rainforest to the forest department office. The owners of such machines can take the machines for use if they can produce suitable reason before the department and the records be kept in the office of the Forest Department. This process will eliminate the possibility of using such machines in cutting wood by the vicious circle.
According to local people, the construction of a proposed two-lane national highway, which will pass through 18 km of Jeypore Forest area, will have a major impact on the forest. DC Pallav Jha instructed the Executive Engineer of National Highway Authority, Devapradata Nath to conduct a joint survey on the impact of construction of this road and submit a detail report to the Ministry of Road Transport in this regard.
Along the Additional Deputy Commissioner Sushanta Kr Dutta, DFO Pradipta Baruah, Namrup DSP Kula Pradip Bhattacharya, Monk of Budha Bihar Namfake Village, Gyanpal Mahather, and other prominent persons were present in the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, journalist Bidyut Mahanta handed over a memorandum which was signed by various people about the rainforest conservation to Deputy Commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha with a proposal to stop deforestation and improve its various aspects.
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