Affidavit filed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam in the matter of news item titled "the last feral horses in India" appearing in Mongabay, November 5, 2024. The matter relates to the critically endangered status of feral horses in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park as well as of smuggling of these …
The population of the lesser fish-eagle (Ichthyophaga humilis) in the Corbett National Park is depleting due to DDT contamination. There have been reports of breaking of eggs due to eggshell thinning and those hatched died within a week, according to a recent study by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). …
sanjoy Ghosh's abductors belonging to the United Liberation Front of Asom ( ulfa ), issued a statement on July 23 refuting the claims of an earlier statement (dated July 22) which said that he was dead. ulfa's central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimory stated that Ghosh was alive and in the …
THE government of India has awarded the first ever industrial growth centr& in Assam to the district of Sonitpur. An amount of Rs 50 lakh has recently been sanctioned by the Union ministry of industry, out of which there will be a total capital outlay of Rs 30 crore for …
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ABANI KUMAR BHAGABATI, GUWAHATIthe Karbi Anglong district in Assam, the homeland of the Karbi tribe, is on the brink of an economic and ecological crisis. A high rate of population growth and overuse of land for shifting cultivation known as jhumming have led to alternative means of increasing productivity. While …
•The West Bengal government has introduced a water pricing policy for affluent users and industries. Accordingly, they will not only have to pay the operation and maintenance costs of running a water supply system, but also help the municipalities generate a surplus.• Urban Environmental Maps of Shimla, a report prepared …
the government of Assam, in an attempt to gain further control over the natural resources of the state, has proposed the introduction of a bill that aims to bring natural gas and gas plants under its purview. While disclosing this in the assembly on March 17, industries minister Gunin Hazarika …
Beels are shallow waterbodies with rich macrophytic vegetation. The recent satellite survey undertaken by the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre, shows that there are as many as 3,536 wetlands in the state, occupying an area of 1,030,76 ha constituting 1.31 per cent of the total geographical area of the state. …
manas Tiger Reserve in western Assam will soon receive an emergency aid of us $225,000 from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (unesco). In a meeting held in Mexico in December 1996, unesco had decided to grant the emergency aid after concluding that the Manas national park, a …
february 1, 1997, was celebrated world-wide as the World Wetlands Day. The World Wide Fund for Nature even issued a statement asking governments to reaffirm their commitment to conservation and restoration of wetlands throughtout the world. However, for the numerous waterbodies, fringed frequently by marshy wetlands, and scattered amidst the …
recently in Sonapur, Assam, heart surgeon Dhaniram Baruah and his team, including Jonathan Ho of Hong Kong, transplanted a pig's heart into Purno Saikia, a 32-year-old heart patient. Saikia survived for less than a week and fell to the grotesque experiment of an overambitious doctor. Saikia, a terminally-ill patient, would …
the one-horned rhinos of Kaziranga National Park in Assam, may yet be saved from extinction. Alarmed by the recent escalation in poaching incidents, the state government has imposed Section 144 of Indian Penal Code in the park. The penal provision prohibits the congregation of four or more people at a …
• As per the directive of the Supreme Court, the first green bench in the judicial history of the country sat at the Calcutta High Court n June 3. The bench will deal exclusively with environmental and pollution control matters and was set up following a judgement on a writ …
THE blasting Of Chandardinga hills source of granite rocks - situated on the banks of Brahmaputra in Dhubri district of Assam has blown up into a big issue (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 18). The matter has now been dragged to the Guwahati High Court by the Appropriate Technology …
• The Andhra Pradesh government announced a Rs 1,630 crore afforestation programme on January 30, on degraded land over the next five years. The programme would cover an area of 7.43 lakh ha. • Power plants generating units of more than 3500 MW capacity will be set up in Haryana …
ENVIRONMENTAL activists have blasted the Assam government for giving permission to a private party to carry out blasting of the Chandardinga Hill in Dhubri district. Saumyadeep Dutta, director of Nature's Beckon, a local environmental activist group, said the state government had allowed a private party, Rock Product Traders, to go …
THE threat of malaria has been an omnipresent phenomenon in Assam and the Northeast, but the disease struck in the region with particular virulence early this year. Epidemic-hit Sonitpur witnessed a typical government response to the barrage of critical reports in the press: the chopping block was readied; the health …
THE monsoon has struck Assam before schedule, bringing flashfloods, forming mosquito- rearing waterpools, and killing hundreds. An unprecedented toll in April of 240 malarial deaths in 12 districts, has sparked off a debate about the efficacy of the present drug regimen. The Union government's righteous anti-state government stand stems from …
A NOMADIC existence runs contrary to the general notion of security, which is popularly identified with geographic stasis - staying put in one place. But then there are 2 kinds of nomads: those who choose to wander, society's nuts; and those who have no other choice. It is often only …
Intelligence agencies of the Assam government have alleged that the 2,387 sq km Manas Tiger Reserve, listed by the UNESCO as a World Heritage site, has become a sanctuary for about 200 Bodo insurgents. The group is alleged to have taken refuge in the sanctuary after a murderous raid on …
DEFORESTATION has become a major problem in north-eastern India. In the past 2 years, more than 63,500 ha of forests have been destroyed in the region, 24,300 in Assam alone. This alarming trend has finally drawn the attention of the Union government and, according to government sources, prime minister P …
