After 20 Years, Elephants Of Numaligarh To Get Their Home Back, Assam Government Notifies Deopahar As Reserve Forest

Herds of wild elephants in Assam's Numaligarh will now stroll freely in the Deopahar Reserve Forest, just like they have done for hundreds of years before it was taken away from them by humans, who constructed a wall around the forest.

Now the Assam government has issued an order notifying Deopahar in Golaghat district as a Reserve Forest.

The government's notification came on January 19, a day after the Supreme Court rejected the review petition of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) against a previous decision which upheld a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order to demolish a boundary wall and proposed township in the area, which falls in the middle of an elephant corridor.

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State-run NRL has been engaged in a long-standing legal battle over its construction of a border wall for its township, which was blocking the elephant corridor. While the oil company argued that the wall was necessary to keep the residents safe from wild elephants. But environmentalist claimed that the concrete fencing is dangerous and that elephants are getting killed while trying to bring the wall down by pouncing on it with their heads.

Despite the setback, the NRL continued to drag the case from one court to another until in January this year the SC made it clear that 'elephants have the first right to the forest' and ordered the demolition of the border wall.

RTI Activist and Environmentalist Rohit Choudhury who had been fighting the case against NRL said it is a victory for the elephants.

“I am very happy that after 20 years the Assam government has notified Deopahar as Reserve Forest. I feel that this should have been done long back so that incidents like encroachments could have been avoided. But it is better late, than never," Choudhury told Indiatimes.

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He also added that back in 2016 the NGT had directed that Deopahar should be declared a reserve forest at the earliest.?

"I still don't know what took them so long to issue this notification, when the NGT made it clear in 2016 itself. Even in 2018, the NGT had dismissed the review of NRL, but they did not take any steps to declare it as a reserve forest. Later on January 18, the SC rejected the plea of NRL and just one after that they have come up with the notification," he explained.

He added that the new township which NRL had proposed in the area was in violation of the NoC of 1994.

"The NoC of 1994 clearly stated that no forest area will be used, there will be no constructions on the hill slopes, and that the existing forest cover towards the west and north of the proposed colony site should not be disturbed," he said.?

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Choudhury also felt that declaring Deopahar as a reserve forest will help in repopulating the area with wild elephants as it will enable free movement for them.

"There is a large elephant population in the area. Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve is just 20 km from Deopahar and connected to the Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve. So elephants keep moving from one place to another," he explained why the corridor is significant.?