Jorhat, Aug. 24: The National Green Tribunal, Delhi, today directed Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) to pay Rs 25 lakh to the forest department, pull down a part of the boundary wall and barbed wire within a month to free an elephant corridor and plant 10 times the number of trees it has destroyed.
The tribunal also asked the state government to declare Deopahar forest, in Golaghat district and adjoining Kaziranga National Park, a reserve as proposed by the forest department in 1999.
The order goes in favour of Rohit Choudhury, a resident of Garmur, Bokakhat, in Golaghat district, who had last year filed a petition (No. 787/2015) urging the tribunal to declare Deopahar forest a reserve and had alleged encroachment by NRL, while expanding its township, of an elephant corridor that passes from Kaziranga to Karbi hills through Deopahar forest.
Choudhury, a researcher for Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, a New Delhi-based environmental law firm, told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi that he welcomed the ruling and hoped that the government would notify the area as a reserve forest.
In 2011, Choudhury had filed a PIL (No. 38/2011) with the tribunal seeking protection of the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong area, which had been notified by the government as a no-development zone in 1996, against polluting industries.
In 2012, the tribunal ruled that the area was a no development zone and ordered closure of brick kilns, stone crushers and other polluting industries. It asked the government to put in place a mechanism to end all such activities in the area.
Choudhury said his application last year was related to the 2011 case and hence was filed as a miscellaneous application. He said the ruling affirmed his faith in NGT.
The tribunal has asked the NRL to pay Rs 25 lakh as environment impact compensation and plant trees as many were felled to expand its township. The wall referred to is the one built by NRL to expand its township.
NRL had earlier denied the allegation that the wall blocked the elephant corridor, saying that it was not a corridor and there was only movement of elephants in the area.
NRL public relations officer M. Handique today said they had come to know of the ruling over phone and would take a decision only after the order is uploaded on the tribunal website. "We are a government entity and the district administration had handed over the land to us. We have not acquired it illegally or encroached upon it," he said.
However, a letter (No. 91, NRL/T&E/DFO/4, dated June 17, 2015) from the divisional forest officer, Golaghat division, to the managing director, NRL, Guwahati, had stated that NRL had violated forest acts, including the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and would be proceeded against.
It also said NRL had violated the environment clearance mandate issued by the Union ministry of forests and environment during the establishment of NRL, as well as tribunal orders. It said NRL was causing serious damage to elephant movement and was showing no sensitivity towards forests, wildlife and environment.
The missive was sent by the Golaghat DFO after an inquiry by Santanu Barua, assistant conservator of forests, Golaghat, in the wake of complaints filed by Anirban Nature Club, an NGO working on conservation.
Samarjit Sharma, secretary of the club, said the tribunal's ruling was in favour of their fight for conservation.
Arnav Saikia, another member, said their movement had gained impetus when litterateur Homen Borgohain and poet Nilamoni Phukan had sat on a hunger strike with them near Deopahar forest in 2014 in protest against NRL's expansion.
