Guwahati, Nov. 15: Nature’s Beckon, a non-governmental organisation working on environmental issues, today reiterated its claim that the Assam forest department had failed to prevent illegal poaching of rare animals like hoolock gibbon and rampant cutting of trees in Joypur reserve forest.

Addressing newspersons, the NGO’s director Soumyadeep Datta said the forest officials have failed to take remedial measures despite being provided with photographic evidence. Instead, they accused the NGO of violating forest laws, he added.

Datta said that the new article 51A sub-clause (G) allows every Indian citizen to “protect and improve the natural environment”. “Hence, no permission is required by any NGO to enter a forest for protecting it and its wildlife,” he said.