Guwahati:
Just when the Ministry of Environment and Forest was getting its act together cancelling mining licenses and suspending infrastructure projects which do not conform to environment norms in Assam, the Border Roads have started builing a road through a reserve forest which also touches a Tiger park.
The widening of National Highway 42 is underway.
The Border Road Organisation signpost cautions: "Work in Progress Drive Slow" .
The road cuts through a reserve forest and a buffer zone of a Tiger Park violating Forest Conservation act 1980 and Environment Protection Act 1986.
"There is a standard protocol as per Forest Conservation Act 1980, that prior permission from ministry is vital and the state after getting proposal from project proponent will forward to the ministry and ministry will consider whether the forest land needs to be diverted," clarifies Bibhab Talukdar, a member of the Elephant Task Force.
More than 20 kilometres of the road falls within Balipara Reserve Forest , the buffer Area of Nameri Tiger Reserve and also cuts through Sonitpur Elephant Reserve.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority has now asked the Assam Forest Department to explain how this construction was undertaken.
Even temporary permits for road or mining or quarrying is prohibited in reserve forest areas but across the state of Assam the authorities have flouted norms or circumvented them to allow mining and quarrying and now there is a road construction taking place in protected areas.