STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Sept 9: The Gauhati High Court has put a stay on execution of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order asking the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) to completely demolish its boundary wall as it allegedly blocked an elephant corridor.
A bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan recently passed the order after the NRL challenged the NGT order, saying the entire wall need not be demolished as it is not a part of Deopahar Reserve Forest in Golaghat district. The High Court has issued notices to the respondents and asked them to furnish their replies within six weeks. It has fixed October 31 as the next date of hearing of the case.
On August 24, 2016, the NGT asked the NRL to completely demolish the boundary wall. The refinery had demolished a part of the boundary wall in March this year leaving one portion from being brought down. The NRL had also filed a petition with the NGT, seeking a review of its 2016 order. The NGT, however, last month rejected the NRL’s review petition, asking the refinery to comply with the 2016 order.
The NGT, in its order last month, had said the barbed wire and the razor-edge fencing along the said boundary wall was “extremely dangerous to the elephants and other wildlife passing through the vicinity”. Some elephants died after the wall came up, as recorded in a video clipping submitted by the applicant. The tribunal also said the elephant corridors need to be preserved and are of prime importance for migration of elephants.
“We find that the wall and the proposed township are in violation of the no-development zone and the wall should be demolished within a period of one month and the proposed township should not come up in the present location,” the tribunal said.
Rohit Choudhury, a resident of Bokakhat, had approached the tribunal in August 2015, and had alleged that the boundary wall is being created on the land of Deopahar Reserve Forest and obstructing the elephant corridor.