A CORRESPONDENT
PATHSALA: An online movement initiated by Gauhati University's Eco Club 'Moi Prokriti' to save Dehing-Patkai rainforest from coal mining, has gained popularity. After a huge number of netizens came forward and tweeted about the issue, Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda tweeted in this regard. "Called Amazon of the East, Dehing Patkai sanctuary has everything from elephants, cats to bears, famous Assam macaque in which the govt has performed mining. Do we need another COVID-19 to realise how important biodiversity is," he tweeted alongside a connect to a change.org campaign addressed to the Chief Minister of Assam, among others.
Bollywood actor Dia Mirza additionally took to Twitter to voice her supposition. She tweeted #SaveDehingPatkai along with a quote by Forest Man of India, Padma Shri Jadav Payeng.
"We have been very successful today as we could trend the #SaveDehingPatkai hashtag on top on Twitter and we hope that people will notice about the issue," Lakhyajit Das, vice-president of Gauhati University Postgraduate Students' Union said.
Moi Prokriti has taken up another initiative in collaboration with the students of Tezpur University, Dibrugarh University, Cotton University and Bhattadev University. They arranged a Twitter Storm using the #SaveDehingPatkai hashtag. The initiative was a very successful one as the matter was trending as No.1 on Twitter in the country.
"It is a big boost to our movement as stars like Randeep Hooda, Papon, Adil Hussain, Dia Mirza and Nilotpal Bora have come forward in the support of the movement," said Sarfaraz Ansari, a member of Moi Prokriti.