Saving Deepor Beel

It is very significant that a division bench of the Gauhati High Court has issued a stay order on a decision by the Government of Assam to ‘denotify’ the Deepor Beel Wildlife Sanctuary. Deepor Beel, whose conservation in a scientific manner is of utmost importance from various aspects, is unfortunate that an attempt was made to wipe it out altogether. While the actual size of Deepor Beel was about 40 sq km when the Assam capital was brought down from Shillong to Guwahati in 1974, this wonderful gift of nature has shrunk rapidly because of the lack of foresight of successive governments and also because of a nexus of land-hungry criminals, government officers, and politicians. While only about 4.14 sq km of the invaluable wetland was declared a Bird (Wildlife) Sanctuary in 1989, it earned international importance when the Ramsar Convention in 2002 designated Deepor Beel as a Ramsar Site, thus underscoring the urgent need to undertake conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance for sustaining a range of aquatic life forms besides 219 species of birds. It is a fact that the failure of the government in the first place to notify the entire water body as a wildlife sanctuary has led to the occupation of the land and water space of the Beel from all sides by various means. A drive from the city to the LGBI Airport, be it from Jalukbari or through the Moinakhorong-Rani Road, will show how land-hungry, powerful, and moneyed people are constricting Deepor Beel from all sides. Additionally, the authorities, instead of working towards its health, have been dumping the city’s garbage in its vicinity. The railways have also caused considerable damage and disturbance to the ecosystem centering around Deepor Beel, while it was only a few months ago that the Army had also caused massive disturbance to the migratory birds by staging a water sports event inside the bird sanctuary. It is unfortunate that the Government of Assam, instead of honouring India’s commitment at the Ramsar Convention and the provisions of the Guwahati Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act of 2008 (amended in May 2010), has only decided to ‘denotify’ the Wildlife Sanctuary status of such a globally significant water body. The apparent silence of the state’s several conservation NGOs is also disturbing, and had it not been for a villager living in the vicinity of Deepor Beel who took the issue to the Gauhati High Court, the water body would have by now vanished forever. It is a matter of great hope that the Gauhati High Court, which took up the villager’s PIL, has very emphatically expressed its view that any decision to de-notify the Deepor Beel Wildlife Sanctuary is not warranted at this stage. Dispur, instead of succumbing to any alleged pressure from the land mafia, should show respect to the High Court’s direction not to issue any notification de-notifying the Deepor Beel Wildlife Sanctuary.