Among the colossal failures of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in India’s northeastern state of Assam has been its inability, perhaps even unwillingness to halt the anti-environment policies that it has promulgated at regular intervals. These have triggered controversies and drawn the attention of the Supreme Court of India.
India’s Northeast, which is part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot is among 36 such hotspots in the world.
In January, based on media reports, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) registered a suo moto case against and sought an explanation from the Assam forest department, the district magistrate of Hailakandi and the federal Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for diverting 44 hectares of a protected forest zone to set up a police commando battalion.
The forest zone is located near the Assam-Mizoram border in Hailakandi district, a disputed zone between the two states. The Assam government decided to establish six new commando battalions across the state, including one in Hailakandi, two years ago. The NGT said that the government granted permission for the construction of the commando battalion inside the Inner Line of Reserved Forest in Hailakandi district without following the mandatory procedures under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Four months later, the Gauhati High Court halted the Assam government’s decision to de-notify Deepor Beel, a wildlife sanctuary and the only Ramsar site in the country’s northeastern region, situated on the outskirts of Guwahati, the state capital. Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance.
The court observed that the cabinet’s move was unjust and untimely and directed the government to refrain from issuing any notice regarding the de-notification.
In addition, the court instructed the government to halt all development and construction activities in and around Deepor Beel until the demarcation notification of the wetland site is officially issued. Subsequently, the government decided to revoke the notification and clarified before the court that any formal notification regarding the de-notification would require approvals from both state and national wildlife boards as well as the Supreme Court.
In May, the Assam government’s proposed plan to construct a greenfield airport at Doloo in the southern district of Cachar using part of a tea garden was halted after the Supreme Court issued an order setting aside the NGT’s clearance since no environmental clearance was obtained for the project. The apex court also found that the state government furnished incorrect facts regarding uprooting 4,190,000 tea bushes for the airport.
The court was critical of the NGT for allegedly disregarding the importance of ecological balance by ignoring the appeals of activists. It noted that the clearing activities were done in violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006 and maintained that no activity breaching the notification should occur.
The next indictment was a directive from the NGT following an application by activist Dilip Nath before the tribunal last year alleging violations of forest laws at Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam’s Sonitpur district where the government has allowed construction activities and illegal encroachments.
The NGT had asked the Assam chief secretary to file an affidavit giving details of officers who approved the constructions in violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Further, the tribunal also directed the federal Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to file a counter affidavit specifying the action taken against officers who allowed the illegal constructions and the measures taken to remove them.
The latest controversy centers on the government’s decision to cancel the preliminary notification for Garbhanga Wildlife Sanctuary near the state capital Guwahati without following the mandatory procedures. The website of the Assam Environment and Forest Department reveals that the government had issued a preliminary notification on March 28, 2022, designating some 73 square miles of Rani and Garbhanga Reserve Forests as Garbhanga Wildlife Sanctuary.
On September 26, 2023, another notification was issued canceling the earlier preliminary notification without citing any reasons.
Once a notification is issued under the forest law, the zone attains the status of a protected area. Any decision to revoke the status can be taken only after the approval of the National Board of Wildlife and the Supreme Court.
The apex court had come down heavily on the Assam government’s decision to de-notify the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary without following the mandatory procedures.
These incidents have triggered alarm among wildlife activists and different sections of people across the region.
The government decisions have come close on the heels of a distressing report by Global Forest Watch, an open-source web application to monitor the world’s forests in near real-time, which revealed the magnitude of tree cover loss in India’s northeastern region during 2001-23. According to the report, over 75 percent of the country’s total tree cover was destroyed during the period, with Assam accounting for the most tree cover loss among all the states in the region.
Perhaps no other state government in the country has flouted environmental norms as much as the Assam government.
According to the grapevine, in some cases, the commercial interests of politicians and businessmen prompted the government to arrive at these hasty and controversial decisions, especially on the Garbhanga Wildlife Sanctuary.