Why NBWL's Green Signal to Coal India Ltd. to endanger the Green Sanctity of Dehing Patkai?

Protests Raised All Over in Assam Against NBWL's Decision

Assam, 18th of May, 2020: While the whole world is fighting against deadly Corona, and people are admitting that it is a Mother Nature's tough lesson against there aggressive reaping of the nature, some actions show that we are still not ready to learn and adhere the Nature's core principles.

The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has, on 7th of April taken an odd decision to show green signal to Coal India Limited to carry coal mining in a big sanctuary of Assam named Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve. Coal India Limited has been indicated green signal on access over a span of 98.59 hectares of land at Saleki in Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve, to carry out coal mining.

The area of Saleki is a part of India's largest rain forest named Dehing Patkai which is spread over 575 square kilometers stretching to an area covered in three districts of Assam, namely Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Shivsagar. It is most popularly known as 'Amazon of the East'.

The decision is quite unwelcome by the conscious environmentalists, NGOs and the students' groups of Assam. The Eco Club of Guwahati University already launched a social media movement against the decision of NBWL.

The environmentalists opine that the Dehing Patkai Reserve contains biodiversity and is a home to various rare species of flora and fauna. The decision may put the biodiversity of Dehing Patkai at stake. The government of Assam already proposed this sanctuary as a reserve forest. So in this light, how can mining be permitted in a proposed reserve forest?

Post Graduate Students' Union of Guwahati University launched an #SaveDehingPatkai campaign in social media platforms including twitter.

They appealed, "Let's stand for Dehing Patkai, 'The Amazon of the East' which is under threat.Apart from illegal mining of the coalthat has been carried out for almost 16 years, National Board for Wildli (NBWL) has permitted Coal India Limited to carry out mining activities, an Elephant Reserve Area of Assam's Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary. So let's start a movement in social media. Post #SaveDehingPatkai in your social media accounts .... to spread the movement.