Conservation conversation

Wildlife week is celebrated in the first week of October every year to make people aware of the conservation and protection of wildlife. Incidents like leopards beaten to death and people parading the carcass on the streets on the rise are a grim reminder that even after 65 years of celebrating the wildlife week, Assam is far from achieving this primary objective. A ritualistic celebration often overshadows the hard realities of rising conservation threat to wildlife species in habitats outside the protected areas in the state. This calls for serious introspection by all stakeholders and articulate an innovative approach to make the week-long celebration meaningful. The weeklong celebration provides the stakeholders the opportunity to critically examine if the government's policy of ease of doing business are in conformity with the laws in force for conservation of wildlife and their habitats. The draft Environment Impact Assessment, 2020 notification triggered protests across the state as organizations raised appConservation conversation

ehensions that the notification, if finalised, could pose grave existential threat to fragile ecology and rich biodiversity outside the protected areas. The apprehension stems from dilution of EIA norms and incorporation of provisions like post-facto approval to projects, exempting linear projects within 100 kilometres of international boundaries in the draft notification. Indiscriminate open cast coal mining in Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve by Coal India Limited (CIL) without prior approval of the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) as well as illegal rat-hole mining has already led to destruction of forest on vast areas of the elephant reserve. The CIL approaching NBWL for post-facto approval to its opencast coal mining project after already clearing and mining in 73.59 hectares of forest areas of the total 98.20 project area in the elephant reserve only vindicates the apprehension raised over EIA, 2020 draft notification.

The incident of blowout and subsequent fire in a gas well of Baghjan oilfield of Oil India Limited in the vicinity of Dibru-Saikhowa National Park resulting in loss of lives, displacement of local residents, loss of wildlife cannot remain excluded from the agenda and activities wildlife week celebration. Rather, it should motivate the stakeholders to understand the gaps that need to be bridged to prevent a recurrence. Looking at these incidents as stray incidents and disconnected from dilution of wildlife and forest conservation policies runs the risk of reducing the awareness drive with no tangible outcome. The weeklong celebration must create the space for discussion if the NBWL, a statutory board under the Wildlife Protection (Act), 1972 for promotion and conservation of wildlife and forest has been effective in conservation of wildlife. It is time to discuss if the NBWL jurisdiction needs to be expanded beyond the protected areas and eco-sensitive zone to regulate activities in forest areas which sustain endangered and threatened wildlife species but lies outside such protected and regulated zones. The discussion with active participation of the public and affected communities should cover how the reduction of the extent of Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) is going to impact the conservation of such wildlife species. The ESZ are supposed to the "shock-absorbers" of protected areas like national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and are notified to regulate human activities in the buffer zones and protect the wildlife corridors. While importance of the intricacies of regulatory measures in ESZ can be better understood by experts, people living in such areas need to be explained what these meant and why they need to follow them.

Similarly, a comprehensive review of the role of the State Board of Wildlife in conservation of wildlife and forests over the past years by experts will go a long way in bringing dynamism to conservation initiatives in the state. Participation of the communities who have traditional knowledge of conservation of forest in such discussions and deliberations can be expected to shed new light on wildlife conservation strategies. Development goals are important but for a region like Northeast it cannot be at the cost of its rich biodiversity. Climate change strategies require conservation of forest and environment of the state and the region. The development strategies for the region must be balanced with this requirement to prevent adverse climate change impact such as flood and erosion displacing more people due to rampant destruction of forest. A forest grown through plantation of trees cannot replace a rainforest which has evolved naturally. Therefore, consent of the people for a policy for environment impact assessment that involves forest clearance formulated by the government cannot be taken for granted without an extensive review. The wildlife week brings the scope for wide deliberations on such policy matters. A pragmatic approach of achieving the desired level of awareness on wildlife and forest conservation among the people is to initiate engaging conversation and prevent the weeklong celebration continuing to be a hostage to ceremonial formalities.