Numaligarh, Aug. 25: Wildlife conservationists and nature lovers have hailed the National Green Tribunal's order directing Numaligarh Refinery Limited to shift the location of its proposed township extension and demolish its boundary wall within a month to give elephants the right of passage.

The refinery today said it was studying the NGT order but would abide by it.

"It is a setback to us," an NRL official said.

Environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta, who had fought the case for petitioner Rohit Choudhury in the NGT, told The Telegraph that NRL should review its expansion plan in the light of the NGT decision and must also realise that they were operating in an ecologically sensitive area. "A golf course in such an ecologically sensitive area is absurd. This is also a warning to other companies planning similar activities," he said.

Samarjit Sharma, secretary of Anirban Nature Club, an environmental organisation based in Golaghat district, said the order was a big boost to organisations fighting against illegal activities in ecologically sensitive areas.

"We made a documentary last year and submitted it to the NGT, showing how an elephant herd, on its way to Karbi hills, tried to negotiate a wall erected by the NRL but could not do so," he said.

Arup Ballav Goswami, a resident of Golaghat district, said companies would now have to think twice before planning similar activities in ecologically sensitive areas.

The green tribunal, in its order passed yesterday, had also asked the NRL to pay a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the forest department for environmental degradation and to plant trees 10 times the number destroyed for its proposed township extension. It said it was clear that the construction of a golf course using heavy machinery had led to destruction of tree cover in Deopahar forest.

It also said the township extension is proposed to be located to the west of the refinery, contrary to the conditions laid down in the environmental clearance given to the NRL by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) in 1991. The ministry had said the residential site should not be to the west of the refinery as it is only 19.5km from the boundary of Kaziranga National Park.

The NGT also said the wall constructed around the NRL's proposed township extension is a part of Deopahar forest, comes in the way of elephant corridor and violates the no-development zone notification of the MoEF IN 1996. Hence, it should be demolished within one month and the proposed township should not come up in the present location.

The MoEF had, in its 1996 notification, laid down that there should be no development activity within a radius of 15km from the refinery but the wall clearly falls within this radius. The NGT said the government of Assam and the ministry should ensure that there is no violation of the no-development zone directive.

The ministry's Elephant Task Force report (or Gajah report on securing the future of elephants in India) dated August 31, 2010, had stressed on maintaining the integrity of elephant corridors for long-term survival of the species. "Elephants cannot survive simply through strict protection of a few parks and sanctuaries. A sole focus exclusively on protected areas, vital as they are, is inadequate for the long term conservation of this keystone species. Fragmentation of the available habitats has further confined most of the populations to smaller habitation islands," it said.

The NRL has said that it constructed the boundary wall in 2011 to protect land (about 67 bighas) acquired in 2004 to 2006 for extension of its existing township and for the safety of its residents. It also contends that the township extension land is tea garden land, having tea bushes and 201 shade trees of which 149 trees have been cut. On April 11, 2012, it wrote to the divisional forest officer (DFO), intimating about construction of residential accommodation and seeking permission to cut the tea bushes and uproot shade trees.

The DFO granted the permission, subject to two conditions: Active participation by the NRL management in addressing the man-animal conflict in the area around NRL by providing resource and logistic support annually and sought field logistic for the year 2013-14.

In October 2015, the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority Assam informed the NGT that the DFO had urged for cancellation/suspension of the environment clearance on the grounds that the boundary wall and golf course were not included in the proposal submitted by NRL for the extension of their township.

That the proposed land for NRL township Phase-III falls within the Deopahar forest, is evident in a letter (No. BRQ3/2003/406) written by the sub-divisional officer of Bokakhat to the deputy commissioner of Bokakhat in August 2015, stating that some portions of the land included in the draft notification for Deopahar proposed reserve forest dated August 18, 1999, was acquired for the extension of NRL township.

The cost of the refinery township project is Rs 55 crore which would accommodate 102 families.

The tribunal has asked the Assam government to declare Deopahar forest, through which elephants pass on their way from Kaziranga National Park to Karbi hills, a reserve.