Dhubri, Dec. 22: After years of movement and persuasion at the bureaucratic level, the Assam Assembly will discuss tomorrow if Sareswar Beel (wetland) can be called a bird sanctuary. The lake is under the BTAD and Gouripur Assembly constituency in Dhubri district. Nature’s Friends, an NGO, has been spearheading an awareness campaign for the past 15 years to save the waterbody for not only being the habitat of many rare, endangered and migratory birds but also for its rich aquatic life. A source in Nature’s Friends said for its rich and varied natural diversification, the wetland had been listed as a Site of Global Importance in the Directory of Asian Wetlands. An ornithologist and secretary of Nature’s Friends, Diptiman Dutta, said in Dhubri district, there are 335 wetlands of varying sizes, but migratory birds flock to only a few of them, including Sareswar Beel, which is free of human settlements. “The wetland was listed as a Site of Global Importance in the Directory of Asian Wetlands and is home to 40 species of birds, including the purple moorhen, and it is considered one of the best sites in the region for migratory waterfowls. This winter more than 10,000 birds of different species have flocked to this wetland,” Dutta said. The director of Nature’s Friends, Kulodhar Das, while expressing hope on declaration of Sareswar Beel a bird sanctuary, said a lot of time had been spent to correct the proposal sent to government. The beel was under Dhubri district but after formation of the BTAD , it went under Parbotjhara forest division but remains under Gouripur Assembly constituency of Dhubri district. “We have been demanding that the government declare Sareswar Beel a bird sanctuary for the past 15 years but our proposal was first sent to the chief conservator of forest (wildlife) by the Dhubri divisional forest officer (DFO) on February 25, 2005. The second detailed proposal with maps and boundary was sent to the chief conservator of forest (wildlife) on February 27, 2007. The proposal was returned to Dhubri DFO with a note that it should be routed through the BTAD,” Das said. Das said after receiving the note, the Dhubri DFO again sent a fresh proposal to Kokrajhar divisional conservator of forest (western Assam) on August 23, 2006, and BTAD issued a “no objection” to the proposal on August 31, 2007. It was finally sent to the principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) on January 17, 2009, and was forwarded to the state government forest secretary and commissioner for issuing necessary notification for declaring the wetland a bird sanctuary on August 9, 2010. Das hoped that as there was no formality left to be done, only a nod of the forest minister was required to declare the beel a bird sanctuary.