Assam: NBWL Terms for Electrification of Railway in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) has recommended with conditions the proposal for use of 9.0 hectares (ha) comprising 1.6 ha of forest land from Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Jorhat district and 7.4 ha of non-forest land from its notified Eco-Sensitive Zone for 25KV railway electrification of the 9 km-long Lumding-Dibrugarh section of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

The decision was taken at the 80th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wild Life held recently. According to the minutes of the meeting dated October 15, 2024, the Standing Committee was informed that the proposal is for use of 9.0 ha (1.6 ha of forest land from Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary and 7.4 ha of non-forest land from its notified Eco-Sensitive Zone) for 25KV railway electrification of the 9-kilometre-long Lumding-Dibrugarh section of Northeast Frontier Railway in favour of IRCON International Limited.

The proposal was recommended by the Chief Wild Life Warden, the State Board for Wild Life, and the State Government. The Chief Wild Life Warden, Assam, mentioned that the railway line has existed for about 100 years, which was prior to the notification of the sanctuary. The Railway Department has proposed to carry out electrification of the railway line.

During the discussions, an example from Buxa Tiger Reserve was taken, with a suggestion for imposing speed restrictions for the trains passing through this sanctuary.

Finally, the National Board for Wild Life recommended the proposal, subject to the condition that, (1) The Forest Deparment shall prescribe appropriate speed restrictions for the trains passing through the sanctuary; (2) The User Agency shall have to implement all the mitigation measures prescribed in the animal passage plan designed by Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, simultaneously with execution of the project; (3) The electric wires shall not be energized till the complete installation of mitigation measures for safe movement of Elephants and Hoolock Gibbon across the electrified railway track; (4) No construction activity shall be carried out between sunset and sunrise; (5) The User Agency shall deposit 2% of the project cost as Corpus Fund in favour of CWLW, Assam for preparing and implementing Human Elephant/Wildlife Conflict Mitigation and Wildlife Conservation Plan; (6) An annual compliance certificate on the stipulated conditions shall be submitted by the User Agency to the State Chief Wild Life Warden and an annual compliance certificate shall be submitted by the State Chief Wild Life Warden to Government.

The Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is located near Mariani in Jorhat district. The Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, placed in IUCN category IV, contains India’s only ape and gibbon specie—the hoolock gibbons—and Northeastern India’s only nocturnal primate—the Bengal slow loris.

The upper canopy of the forest is dominated by the hollong tree (Dipterocarpus retusus), while the nahar (Mesua ferrea) dominates the middle canopy. The lower canopy consists of evergreen shrubs and herbs. The habitat is threatened by illegal logging, encroachment of human settlements, and habitat fragmentation.

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