Future of elephants in Assam, INDIA

[Guest guest]

The Assam Tribune (Letters to the Editor), Guwahati, 17 Aug 2005

www.assamtribune.com

 

Future of elephants in Assam

Sir,– I have been following various news items published of late in

almost all the newspapers in Assam with regard to the uncertain

future of elephants in most of the key forests in Assam. Elephant –

a symbol of strength and pride has been facing tremendous aggression

from the vested interest groups of people of late as a result of

which elephant population has dwindled and area they had been using

since ancient time has been reduced through encroachment and other

destructive activities. The State government and the so called

environment friendly Forest Minister of Assam who has got claps for

celebrating the Kaziranga Centenary in February 2005 has done

nothing positive to stop the aggression against the gullible

elephants in Assam, whether it is by the effects of the stone quarry

at Behora within the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve or by

the drilling activities for oil exploration by Premier Oil Company

within the Dihing-Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary. The protector of the

forests has become protector of polluters and racket of ecological

terrorists destroying the life support system within the forests

without even a thought for their own children's future.

 

The NGOs in Assam have raised their concern at the destruction of

key elephant forests in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve and

the Dihing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary and appealed to the government

to stop quarry in Behora area near Kaziranga. Is our State

government so resourceless that they even can't find an alternative

site for the stone quarry? It is now an open secret that top boss of

the Department of Environment and Forests might have agreed to allow

the quarry and it could be such an agreement just before election

that the environment friendly Forest Minister chooses to be silent.

The Assam Assembly was told that the stone quarry in Behora has been

stopped temporarily until the Elephant Task Force submitted its

report. But the stone quarry has not stopped even for a single day.

 

After such incident does the State government has any right to

appeal to people to save elephants on a few occasions like the

Wildlife Week or World Environment Day etc? I would like to request

the politicians to stop politics involving the gullible wildlife –

the creatures that even can't protest or speak in the language of

man. If this trend continues the elephant is certainly facing the

danger of extinction in Assam at least in some of the potential

forests of Assam. Who will save the gullible elephants? If there are

people willing to save the elephants, it is high time to approach

for necessary justice to elephants.

Yours etc.,

 

Shankar Prasad Bezbarua,

Ambikagiri Nagar, Guwahati.