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Elephant Corridor Near Kaziranga Remains Blocked Even After SC Order to Remove

by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty

New Delhi: An elephant corridor near Kaziranga National Park, Assam, continues to be blocked by a concrete wall erected by Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), an oil company in the state’s Golaghat district. This is even after the Supreme Court set aside its civil appeal defending the action.

NRL is a Miniratna public-sector enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It was inaugurated in 1999 by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. More recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for its biodiesel plant.

On January 18, a bench of the apex court comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah dismissed the NRL’s plea because the 2.2-km-long boundary wall is within 20 km of Kaziranga. More importantly, the area where the wall stands is also part of the Deopahar Reserve Forest. This forest connects Kaziranga to the Karbi Anglong hills and has been a traditional animal corridor.

Acknowledging its strategic importance to elephants in the area, the Assam government on January 19 notified Deopahar as a reserve forest under Section 17 of the Assam Forest Regulation 1891.

Also read: Oil and ‘Outsiders’: Outrage in Assam Over the BJP’s Decision to Privatise Oil Fields

When the NRL build the wall in 2011, Deopahar had been a proposed reserve forest. Then again, the wall at the time was within a ‘no development zone’ notified by the Ministry of Forest and Environment in 1996.

The NRL boundary wall appropriates an area that the company wants to use to extend its township, which includes a golf course. It submitted to the court that the wall had built on land it possessed and that it didn’t fall within the elephant corridor. However, dismissing the plea, the court reportedly contended, “Elephants have the first right to the forest. Elephants do not go to office in a designated route. We can’t encroach upon the elephants’ areas.”

On August 24, 2016, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the district administration to demolish the wall. This order was in response to a petition filed by Rohit Choudhury, a local environmental activist, in August 2015. Choudhury had been motivated by an incident in which an elephant reportedly sustained a fatal haemorrhage after bashing its head against the wall trying to break it.

The NRL then filed a review application with the NGT before the one month compliance period ended, which the tribunal dismissed on August 3, 2018. It also asked the district administration to follow its earlier order within a month and the NRL to cough up Rs 25 lakh to help afforest the area.

While the NGT was hearing the case, a short YouTube video captured by a local youth showing a herd of elephants trying to push themselves against the controversial wall created a sensation among the green activists and concerned citizens.

But there was an issue in between. According to Choudhury, the district administration decided to demolish 289 metres of the wall in March 2018 – before the NGT had responded to the review petition.

The decision to demolish only a part of the wall was made on the basis of a survey report compiled by a local circle officer and an official of the forest department. It had then been submitted to the district commissioner (at the time). According to the report, the NRL had encroached upon only one hectare of land; it claimed that the rest belonged to the company.

N.K. Vasu, the state’s principal chief conservator of forests, had told this correspondent then, “It has nothing to do with the [August 2016] NGT order. The case is still on and it is sub-judice.”

However, soon after, the state government filed an affidavit with the NGT that it had complied with the order.

The NRL used this survey report to back up its appeal with the Supreme Court, claiming that it legally owned most of the land. However, the court wasn’t interested.

An appeal to the Supreme Court is the only legal way to challenge an NGT order. Before doing so, the NRL also applied for and received a stay from the Gauhati high court. Though the high court didn’t have jurisdiction under the NGT Act to stay a tribunal order, it did so on the back of a letter by the then district commissioner, which said that the administration would demolish the wall.

Thereafter, the law required the NRL to approach the apex court. However, though the court has upheld the NGT order, oil refinery authorities are citing the high court’s order seeking status quo in the matter and to not to proceed with the demolition.

After the Supreme Court order, Jayashree Naiding, the divisional forest officer, wrote a letter to the NRL. In reply, the chief general manager (human resources) of the NRL wrote to Naiding on February 14:

This is to inform you that the matter is sub-judice in the Honourable Gauhati High Court and has been directed to maintain status quo as regard to the remaining hectares of land as on today till the returnable date. The said status quo is in operation till date. Therefore, you are requested to comply with the aforesaid orders of the Honourable Gauhati High Court and maintain the same.

“I am a bit perplexed by the NRL’s argument,” Choudhury said, “as the SC order of January 18 clearly stated that pending appeals, if any, shall stand disposed of.”

Naiding told The Wire that she had “forwarded the response of the NRL to the higher officials” of her department and that she is “awaiting further advice on the issue”. She added that she had also communicated [the matter] to the district commissioner” – which is currently Dhiren Hazarika.

Hazarika has also written a letter to the NRL asking them to comply with the order. “I am new to the place and am studying the case,” he told The Wire.

Also read: Oil Exploring Survey Near Kaziranga Cancelled After Locals Chase Away Firm

However, he also alleged that the NRL had concealed the fact that it had received a stay order from the Gauhati high court in its appeal to the Supreme Court. “So I am writing a letter to the advocate general of the state for further advice on how to proceed legally in this case.”

Meanwhile, Choudhury has written to Alok Kumar,  the state’s chief secretary, about how NRL has failed to comply with the Supreme Court order even after a month had passed. He said he had sent copies of the letter to the local administration and the registrar of the Supreme Court.

Dated February 20, the letter reads:

Non-demolition of the entire boundary wall will attract penalty under Sections 26, 27 and 28 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. It will also be contempt of the honourable Supreme Court’s order. Therefore, it is stated that the illegal boundary wall constructed by NRL in the Deopahar forest of ‘No Development Zone’ be demolished immediately. In case no action is taken urgently to demolish the said boundary wall, then the undersigned will be constrained to take legal recourse as mandated by law against the Chief Secretary [and other officers of the district administration].

As of March 4, he hadn’t heard back from the state administration.

First publishe in The Wire

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
S P Barooah 
March 5, 2019 by
Environment

Balakot air strikes: Pakistan to lodge U.N. complaint accusing India of ‘eco-terrorism’

A resident points to the damaged site where Indian military aircrafts released payload in Jaba village, Balakot, Pakistan February 28, 2019. Picture taken February 28, 2019.
Indian jets bombed a hilly forest area near the Pakistani town of Balakot.
Pakistan plans to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing it of “eco-terrorism” over air strikes that damaged pine trees, a Minister said on March 1.
Indian warplanes on February 26 bombed a hilly forest area near the Pakistani town of Balakot. New Delhi said it had destroyed a militant training camp. Pakistan denied there were any such camps in the area and locals said only one elderly villager was hurt.
Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam said Indian jets bombed a “forest reserve” and the government was undertaking an environmental impact assessment, which will be the basis a complaint at the United Nations and other forums.
“What happened over there is environmental terrorism,” Mr. Aslam told Reuters, adding that dozens of pine trees had been felled. ”There has been serious environmental damage.”
Two Reuters reporters who visited the site of the bombings, where four large craters could be seen, said up to 15 pine trees had been brought down by the blasts. Villagers dismissed Indian claims that hundreds of militants were killed.
The United Nations states that “destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law”, according to the U.N. General Assembly resolution 47/37.
March 1, 2019 by
Environment

Meghalaya: Body of miner retrieved from coal mine handed over to family

The body of a miner retrieved from the flooded coal mine in East Jaiñtia Hills district of Meghalaya was handed over to the family on Friday morning.

The body was identified as Dimonme Dkhar the resident of Lumthari village in East Jaintia Hills district.

The body was identified by the family members of the dead miner at the morgue of Khliehriat Community Health Centre on Thursday.

East Jaiñtia Hills Deputy Commissioner, FM Dopth released a picture of the handing over the body to the mother.

Dimonme’s elder brother Melambok and his cousin brother, Shalabas Dkhar remained unknown since they were trapped inside the rat-hole coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan on December 13, 2018.

As many as 15 miners were trapped inside the coal mine, and two bodies have been recovered so far.

“We have identified the body from the clothes. He is Dimonme Dkhar,” Pressmeky Dkhar, the uncle of the Dimonme said.

The family thanked the Indian Navy and other rescue officials for making all efforts to retrieve the body of Dimonme.

“We are hopeful that they will also retrieve the bodies of Melambok, Shalabas and other trapped miners,” Pressmeky said.

The Supreme Court is monitoring the rescue operations and told the government that the trapped miners must be taken out of the coal mine whether “dead” or “alive”.

Of the 15 trapped miners, the Indian Navy divers and National Disaster Response Force have pulled out the first body of Amir Hussain from Assam’s Chirang district on January 23.

Source: First published in NE Now

March 1, 2019 by
Environment, Human Rights

Assam forest dwellers panic after Supreme Court order of eviction

by Sanjay Hazarika

Bokakhat : Iillagers living on the fringe areas of forests in Assam are in a state of panic following the Supreme Court (SC) order to evict forest dwellers whose claims over traditional forestlands have been rejected under law.

A three-judge bench, comrising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Indira Banerjee, ordered forced eviction of an estimated 10 lakh Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwelling families from forestlands in the country after the Centre failed to defend their rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

The affidavit filed by Assam said 22,398 claims out of 74,364 filed by the ST people, were rejected while 5,136 claims of the 19,966 claims made by other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD) were rejected. Altogether 10,128 hectares of land were claimed by ST people and 561.4 hectares by OTFD.

The Kaziranga National Park (KNP) has been extended with six additions since 1984, a year after it was declared a world heritage site.

But the lands have not been cleared till date. In the addition process, 43.79 square km in Burahpahar, 6.47 square km in Kohora, 0.69 square km in Paanbari, 0.89 square km in Kanchanjuri, 1.15 square km in Sildubi and 376.50 square km in riverside areas were added. But only in Burahpahar and Kanchanjuri, the lands were handed over to the KNP authority.

In Kohora, 745 households are residing while the number is 129 in Paanbari and 127 in Sildubi.

The court’s orders came on February 13 in a case filed by Wildlife First and other wildlife groups, questioning the validity of the act. The written order was released on Wednesday.

The court asked the state governments to “ensure that where the rejection orders have been passed, eviction will be carried out on or before the next date of hearing”.

The next date of hearing is set for July 27 – the effective date by when 19 states will have to evict tribals to comply with the court orders.

“In case the eviction is not carried out, as aforesaid, the matter will be viewed seriously by this court,” the order said.

The act, which was passed during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s first tenure in 2006, requires the government to hand back traditional forestlands to indigenous and other forest-dwellers against the laid down criteria.

with The Telagraph

February 28, 2019 by
Environment

World’s deepest waters becoming ‘ultimate sink’ for plastic waste

The world’s deepest ocean trenches are becoming “the ultimate sink” for plastic waste, according to a study that reveals contamination of animals even in these dark, remote regions of the planet.

For the first time, scientists found microplastic ingestion by organisms in the Mariana trench and five other areas with a depth of more than 6,000 metres, prompting them to conclude “it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution”.

The paper, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, highlights the threat posed by non-biodegradable substances in clothes, containers and packaging, which make their way from household bins via dump sites and rivers to the oceans, where they break up and sink to the floor.

Microplastics found in every marine mammal surveyed in UK study

The impact of plastic in shallower waters – where it chokes dolphins, whales and seabirds – is already well documented in academic journals and by TV programmes such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. But the study shows this problem is far more profound than previously realised.

Researchers baited, caught and examined subsea creatures from six of the deepest places in the world – the Peru-Chile trench in the south-east Pacific, the New Hebrides and Kermadec trenches in the south-west Pacific, and the Japan trench, Izu-Bonin trench and Mariana trench in the north-west Pacific.

In all six areas, they found ingestion of microparticles by amphipods – a shrimp-like crustacean that scavenges on the seabed. The deeper the region, the higher the rate of consumption. In the Mariana trench – which goes down to the lowest point on earth of 10,890 metres below sea level – 100% of samples contained at least one microparticle.Advertisement

The materials included polyester-reinforced cotton and fibres made of lyocell, rayon, ramie, polyvinyl and polyethylene. The breadth of substances and broad range of geographic sites prompted the authors to observe that increasing volumes of global plastic waste will find their way from surface gyres into these trenches.

“It is intuitive that the ultimate sink for this debris, in whatever size, is the deep sea,” they noted.

Plastics found in stomachs of deepest sea creatures

Once the materials reach these areas – often deeper below the surface than Mount Everest is high above it – the waste has nowhere else to go, said Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, the lead author of the paper.

“If you contaminate a river, it can be flushed clean. If you contaminate a coastline, it can be diluted by the tides. But, in the deepest point of the oceans, it just sits there. It can’t flush and there are no animals going in and out of those trenches.”

The effects on deep-sea species are as yet unclear, though scientists speculate they will experience the same problems of blocked digestive tracts and restricted mobility as creatures at higher depths. They may also be more vulnerable because the trenches are food-scarce ecosystems, which prompts scavengers and predators to gobble up anything they can find.

Jamieson said some new species are being discovered that have never been seen in an uncontaminated state. “We have no baseline to measure them against. There is no data about them in their pristine state,” he said. “The more you think about it, the more depressing it is.”

First published in : The Guardian

February 27, 2019 by
Environment

Assam Government Notifies Deopahar As Reserve Forest

Himangshu Kalita

Herds of wild elephants in Assam’s Numaligarh will now stroll freely in the Deopahar Reserve Forest, just like they have done for hundreds of years before it was taken away from them by humans, who constructed a wall around the forest.

Now the Assam government has issued an order notifying Deopahar in Golaghat district as a Reserve Forest. Though the Assam government had issued the notice on January 19 it became public only recently.

The government’s notification came on January 19, a day after the Supreme Court rejected the review petition of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) against a previous decision which upheld a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order to demolish a boundary wall and proposed township in the area, which falls in the middle of an elephant corridor. Local people allege, despite this setback, NRL is hatching to dump garbage in Doigrung, the most beautiful village of the area building a garbage project. 

Deopahar Reserve Forest

State-run NRL has been engaged in a long-standing legal battle over its construction of a border wall for its township, which was blocking the elephant corridor. While the oil company argued that the wall was necessary to keep the residents safe from wild elephants. But environmentalist claimed that the concrete fencing is dangerous and that elephants are getting killed while trying to bring the wall down by pouncing on it with their heads. Environmentalist Mubina Akhtar and  Chandan Kumar Duarah (Asomiya Pratidin) protested anti-conservation activities and urged both Central and Assam governments to protect the forest area. It is to be remembered that the foundation stone of NRL was laid on july 3 by then Prime Minister Sri P V Narasimha Rao and Conservation Activist, student of D R College, Chandan Kumar Duarah submitted a memorandum to the PM demanding not to touch the Deopahar forest area. Environmental Clearance for Refinery Project Obtained in May 31, 1991.  Before that clearance, Mr. Achinta Nayan Bezbaruah and Chandan Kumar Duarh, pointed out the archeological and environmental importance of Deopahar to the experts who prepared Environmental Impact Study and finally the project keeped off  Deopahar.

According to the report, though the Assam government had issued the notice on January 19 it became public only recently. The notification said in the exercise of powers conferred by Section 17 of the Assam Forest Regulation 1891, the Governor is pleased to declare Deopahar as a reserve forest.

In 2016, the National Green tribunal had ordered demolition of the boundary wall constructed by the NRL authority that came up in the area in 2011 as it is part of Deopahar and also falls in the “no development zone” issued by the Union ministry of environment and forest in 1996. The order of 2016 also said that NRL’s proposed township also falls in Deopahar.

The NGT had given one month’s time to the NRL for demolition of the boundary wall and ordered that the proposed township should not come up in the present location.

In 2018, dismissing NRL’s review application of 2016 order, the NGT had said, “In view of categorical findings already recorded by the tribunal that the area where the wall came up and the area where the proposed township is to come up is part of the Deopahar Reserve Forest, rehearing on merits is not permissible.”

February 5, 2019 by
Environment

Panel urges plan to save Himalayan springs

Image: Poon Hill Jhinu Hot Spring trek is an easy trek situated in Annapurna Region, Nepal

by Jacob Koshy

A NITI Aayog constituted group of experts has urged the government to set up a dedicated mission to salvage and revive spring water systems in the country’s Himalayan States given their vital importance as a source of water for both drinking and irrigation for the region’s inhabitants. Spanning States across the country’s north and northeast and home to about 50 million people, the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has been heavily reliant on these natural groundwater sources, that are under increasing threat from the urbanisation caused by a constant push for development and climate change. “Almost half of the perennial springs have already dried up or have become seasonal and tens of thousands of villages are currently facing acute water shortage for drinking and other domestic purposes,” the group noted in its report titled ‘Inventory and Revival of Springs in the Himalayas for Water Security.’ “Almost 60% of low-discharge springs that provided water to small habitations in the Himalayan region have reported clear decline during the last couple of decades,” the report’s authors, who included experts from the Department of Science and Technology, noted. Shimla crisis The extent of the crisis plaguing the mountainous region was recently evident when more than half a dozen districts of Himachal Pradesh and the State capital Shimla faced a severe drinking water crisis this May after major water sources either went fully or partially dry. While poor water management was said to be the key cause, according to State authorities, they also attributed reduced snowmelt and depressed flow from springs as contributors to the crisis. Also, with almost 64% of the cultivable area in the Himalayas fed by natural springs, they are often the only source of irrigation in the region. The report noted that there were also multiple sources of pollution in springs and these were due to both geogenic, or ‘natural’ causes and anthropogenic, or man-made, ones. Microbial content, sulphates and nitrates were primarily because of anthropogenic reasons and contamination from fluoride, arsenic and iron was mainly derived from geogenic sources. Coliform bacteria in spring water could originate from septic tanks, household wastewater, livestock facilities, and manure lagoons in the source area or in the aquifers feeding springs. Similarly, nitrate sources were septic tanks, household wastewater, agricultural fertilisers, and livestock facilities. While Meghalaya with 3,810 villages with springs had the highest number of these water sources in the Eastern Himalayan States, Sikkim had the greatest density with 94% of its villages having a spring. In the Western Himalayas, Jammu & Kashmir had both the highest number of villages with springs at 3,313 and the greatest density of 50.6%. The group recommends “a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach of managing springs that will involve building upon the existing body of work on spring water management. The programme could be designed on the concept of an action-research programme as part of a hydrogeology-based, community-support system on spring water management.” With over 60,000 villages in the IHR, “growing” urbanisation – due to 500 townships and 10 cities – was increasing demographic pressure on the region’s water resources, the group noted. The task force moots an 8-year programme to overhaul spring water management. This includes: preparing a digital atlas of the country’s springsheds, training ‘para-hydrogeologists’ who could lead grassroots conservation and introduction of a ‘Spring Health Card.’

September 12, 2018 by
Environment

Advert for cat caring job on Greek isle brings deluge of candidates

Smitten with kittens: advert for cat caring job on Greek isle brings deluge of candidates

As job offers go it’s hard to beat. Office location: island idyll with panoramic view of the Aegean sea in the “small paradise” of Syros, in the Cyclades, south-east Greece. Remuneration: all expenses paid.

There’s just one catch. The dream post comes with 55 feline friends – some young, some old, but all of whom need plenty of love and attention.

Any would-be feline carer would need to be “a mature and genuinely passionate cat lover” and also know how to handle cats in all circumstances, the job advert says.

“From experience, the job is most suitable for someone 45+ years of age, who’s responsible, reliable, honest, practically inclined – and really with a heart of gold! You will at times be expected to trap or handle a feral or non-sociable cat … so cat whispering skills should come natural to you.”

When Joan Bowell posted the job offer on Facebook on 5 Augustshe was not expecting to be deluged by respondents. But the artist’s unusual advert – and the enticing pictures of God’s Little People Cat Rescue, her non-profit sanctuary on the island – has gone viral “in the truest sense of the word”.

Bowell, 51, has now received so many messages from candidates that on Sunday night she was forced to post a follow-up notice pleading for interested parties to follow her guidelines and “only write if making life better for Greek rescue cats is your burning desire!”

September 8, 2018 by
Environment

China-made degradable plastics promise end to ocean pollution

Chinese scientists have developed a plastic that degrades in seawater and could help curb the increasingly serious plastic pollution in the oceans.

The new polyester composite material can decompose in seawater over a period ranging from a few days to several hundred days, leaving small molecules that cause no pollution, said Wang Gexia, a senior engineer at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“For a long time, people focused on ‘white pollution’ on land. Plastic pollution in the seas only caught people’s attention when more and more reports about marine animals dying from it appeared in recent years,” said Wang.

About 4.8 million to 12.7 million tones of plastic waste goes into the seas very year, accounting for 60 percent to 80 percent of the total solid pollutants in the oceans, according to a conservative estimate by scientists.

Due to human activities and ocean currents, most of the waste gathers in the north and south Pacific, the north and south Atlantic and the central Indian Ocean.

French media reported that a plastic waste concentration in the ocean between California and Hawaii could be as large as 3.5 million square kilometers, or seven times the territory of France – and growing by 80,000 square kilometers a year.

The World Economic Forum has also warned that the total weight of plastic wastes in the oceans would surpass the total weight of marine fish in 2050.

Almost all the types of plastics are found at sea, either floating on the surface or sinking to the bottom, and they cannot decompose for decades or even centuries, said Wang.

The effects of sunlight, salt weathering, ocean currents and organisms turn plastics into tiny fragments under 5 millimeters long, which are a major threat to marine life. Many albatrosses and turtles die from gastrointestinal problems after eating plastics. 

A shocking scientific survey showed that over 90 percent of sea birds died from eating plastics.

“We still lack effective methods to cope with the serious plastic pollution,” Wang said.

“We cannot collect and deal with the garbage dispersed in the oceans as we do on land. The most feasible solution is to let the materials degrade and disappear,” she said.

The Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry is one of the leading research institutions in China to develop biodegradable plastics that naturally-occurring microbes can decompose into carbon dioxide and water.

The institute has authorized four Chinese enterprises to use their technology, with three enterprises going into production with a total annual capacity of half the global biodegradable plastics, or 75,000 tones.

Realizing the serious plastic pollution in oceans, the researchers aimed to develop materials degradable in seawater, but they found plastics that decompose quickly on land are unable to degrade easily at sea.

They combined non-enzymic hydrolysis, water dissolution and biodegradation processes to design and invent the new material.

The research was recently selected as one of 30 winning projects at a contest of innovative future technologies in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province. 

The contest encouraged young Chinese scientists to conceive ground-breaking technologies and trigger innovation. China has given top priority to ecological environmental protection, contributing Chinese wisdom to resolving global pollution.

Xinhua

September 7, 2018 by