Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) officials visit Kandoli Proposed Reserve Forest in Nagaon

A CORRESPONDENT

NAGAON: The project for compensatory afforestation sanctioned for covering 35 hectares land at Kandoli Proposed Reserve Forest under Kathiatoli range in Nagaon district by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd have been almost completed. The project was initiated as a part of expansion of environment clearance under greenbelt to cover compensatory afforestation by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.

The authority concerned of the Numaligarh Refinery sanctioned fund for two projects at Kandoli Proposed Reserve Forest to cover 35 hectares of land in Nagaon and at Dergaon Nackati Chapori to cover 40 hectares of land in Golaghat district respectively in 2021-22.

Aloke Nath, Chief Manager, Energy Environment, and Abhijit Kunwar, Deputy General Manager, Energy Environment, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd visited the project site this morning here and also reviewed ‘a to z’ activities as well as progress of the project at Kandoli Proposed Reserve Forest (PRF) where over 18 wild elephants died due to thunder in 2021.

Bhaskar Deka, DFO, Nagaon, range officer Ananda Kakati and other officials from Kathiatoli range accompanied the team of the officials from NRL during the visit. The officials from NRL expressed their satisfaction over the progress of the project and expected that the project would surely help to protect the habitation of wild elephants in the area in the days to come.

While speaking to this correspondent here, Aloke Nath, Chief Manager, Energy Environment, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd said that the agency sanctioned Rs 1.98 crore to Nagaon Forest Division for covering afforestation of over 35 hectares in Kandoli PRF while Rs one crore was sanctioned to Dergaon Nackati Chapori in Golaghat for covering over 40 hectares. He however said that the project included plantation of various kinds of trees as well as boundary fencing, construction of roads, bridge, watch tower, check dam, 5 year maintenance, etc.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress, the officials of NRL said that over 61,250 plants were planted under the project last year and mortality rate of the plants were very low. He however expected that after a couple of years, the project would help the local environment to keep its balance and also would protect the habitation of wild elephants as well as other wild species in the reserve.