Amchang must be saved

Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, a pride of Guwahati, which is home to several rare and endangered wildlife species, is in the news again. As has been reported as the lead story by this newspaper in its Saturday edition, a high-level committee constituted by the Sarbananda Sonowal government to inquire into the encroachment in Amchang following an intervention by the Gauhati High Court has reported that majority of the encroachers are well-to-do people who own valuable property and expensive items including cars, motorcycles, costly white goods. The report has also informed the government that most of the encroachers neither belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category, nor are they homeless or landless in the true sense of the term. Unfortunately, Amchang, despite being located so close to the Assam capital, has come under encroachment in the past two decades or so, with hundreds of families coming from different parts of the state occupying it and constructing dwelling houses inside by felling trees and clearing forests. Most deplorable is the fact that every time the government launches an eviction drive, a section of political parties and politicians raise such a hue and cry that the authorities are compelled to stop the drive. This had happened immediately after the previous Congress government of Tarun Gogoi had come to power for the first time in 2001, as also in 2017, a few months after the present BJP-led government had assumed office. A section of self-styled intellectuals are also seen siding with the encroachers by ignoring the basic issue of protecting forests, wildlife, green cover and the environment, which are all so important for overall balanced development. It is also open secret that some politicians and activists are also patrons of the encroachers, with inputs saying that some groups even collect regular fees from the encroachers in order to ensure that they are not evicted. While the present Sonowal government had launched an eviction drive and removed about 700 families from Amchang in November 2017, some people went to court and obtained a status quo order. But even as the status quo order is in force, the criminals posing as landless people have carried out fresh encroachment under the very nose of the authorities. In fact, Achmang, covering an area of 78.64 sq km, was declared as a Wildlife Sanctuary in June 2004, because of its rich fauna and flora. This small sanctuary has an abundance of mammals like: Chinese pangolin, Flying Fox, Slow Loris, Assamese Macaque, Rhesus Macaque, Capped Langur, Hoolock Gibbon, Jungle Cat, Leopard Cat, Leopard, Elephant, Wild Pig, Sambar, Barking Deer, Gaur, Porcupine etc, while its list of birds include Lesser Adjutant, Greater Adjutant, White-backed Vulture, Slender-billed Vulture, Khaleej Pheasant Green Imperial Pigeon, Lesser Pied Hornbill. Amchang is also home to several reptiles like python, monitor Llizard and Indian cobra etc, while elephant population has been increasing despite increasing anthropogenic pressure. It is very significant to note that the high-level committee, in its report has suggested to the government to conduct an investigation as the encroachers appear to be well-organized with sand bunkers, with strong suspicion that they have a nexus with antisocial elements. This is also true of several thousand encroachers in the other reserved forests and hills in and around Guwahati. These encroachers are also to be blamed for the artificial and flash floods in the city, especially because large-scale deforestation and earth-cutting in the hills have triggered off massive topsoil erosion, which in turn blocks the drainage system of the city. The genuine tax-paying law-abiding citizens of Guwahati are definitely looking towards the Gauhati High Court to direct the authorities to take appropriate action and remove all the encroachers so that the forests and hills in and around Guwahati are fully protected in a time-bound manner in the immediate interest of Guwahati and also in the larger interest of India's commitment to protect the environment in the face of climate change. It should not be an impossible task to identify the genuinely landless families from among the encroachers so that they can be provided low-cost housing through some project funded by the Centre.