Assam: Proposed eco-sensitive zone around Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, NGT issues notice on commercial activities

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Many brick kilns and resorts have come up in the proposed eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) surrounding Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, posing a threat to ecological balance. This unwelcome development led the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to issue notices to all authorities concerned, asking them to submit their responses on this sensitive issue within two weeks.

In August this year, the NGT formed a joint committee with members from the Union Ministry of Environment Forest; Assam Forest Department; Pollution Control Board, Assam; etc. to pay a visit to the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and submit their report on commercial structures in the proposed eco-sensitive zone.

Following a complaint alleging commercial structures sprouting up in the proposed eco-sensitive zone, NGT registered a suo moto case and formed the joined committee in August this year. The joint committee visited the site on October 18 this year and submitted its report to the NGT on November 4. The report said that the committee found several brick kilns and resorts within the proposed eco-sensitive zone around Pobitora.

According to the standing order from the Supreme Court, all national parks and wildlife sanctuaries falling under protected forest are to be earmarked a minimum distance of one kilometre as an eco-sensitive zone, and setting up of any permanent structures is prohibited within that area. In sync with the apex court’s order, the Assam Environment and Forest Department urged the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to issue a notification declaring the one-km area around Pabotira Wildlife Sanctuary an eco-sensitive zone. However, the Union ministry is yet to issue its notification in this regard.

The joint committee asked NGT to direct all authorities concerned to declare the eco-sensitive zone around Pobitora ‘after rationalisation of its boundary and approval of the Supreme Court where a case regarding Pobitora is still pending’. The committee also recommended shifting, closure, and regulations of prohibited activities from the proposed eco-sensitive zone; increased monitoring of industrial operations near the sanctuary; expediting the process of issuing a notification of the eco-sensitive zone, etc.

Based on the recommendations of the joint committee, NGT’s judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Afroz Ahmed issued notices to the authorities of the Assam government, the central government, and the owners of brick kilns and resorts to submit their responses to the NGT within two weeks. NGT listed the case for its next hearing on December 10.

According to official sources, they will work closely with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to expedite the process for the declaration of the eco-sensitive zone.

Pobitora was declared a reserved forest in 1971 and a wildlife sanctuary with an area of 3,880 hectares of land in 1998. It covers flat flood plains, and hillocks. It is home to various species, including one-horned rhinos, buffaloes, elephants, etc.

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