‘Industries should not be established at the cost of environment’ says Padma Shri Jadav Payeng in Doomdooma

A Correspondent

DOOMDOOMA: Forestman of India, Padma Shri Jadav Payeng exhorted the students to plant trees and wanted each one of them to take care of at least 10 such trees. He said this while interacting with students, teachers, youths and villagers of Baghjan-Digulturung area, about 20 km away from here, under Doomdooma Revenue Circle while on a visit to assess the impact of oil exploration undertaken by Oil India Limited (OIL) on the environment, especially on the nearby Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Maguri-Motapung Beel recently.

“Industries should not be established at the cost of the environment,” he observed and stressed massive tree plantation for making planet Earth a better place to live in. At the same time, he said that only planting trees was not enough. The saplings should be taken care of until they were fully grown. “Our earth, which is the third planet from the Sun, desperately needs your help,” he told the students.

As per National Park Policy of India, oil exploration is prohibited within a radius of 10 km from any nature reserve. But OIL has recently requisitioned about 36 bighas of land from Digulturrung Tea Estate for oil exploration, which is only 400 metres away from Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Dangari River. It is apprehended that in the event of oil exploration in the area, biodiversity of the national park will be largely affected and the water bodies inside the national park as well as that of Dangari River would also be affected too.

The local people and organizations are apprehensive of this and have protested against the administration for quite some time. They urged Forestman Jadav Payeng to raise this vital issue in an appropriate platform so as to draw attention of the State and Central governments while according felicitation on behalf of Rupkonwar Jatiya Vidyalaya and Baghjan Gaon Milanjyoti Yuvak Sangha.

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