Jairam Ramesh
Guwahati, April 2: Union minister for environment and forests will pay his first visit to Assam on Sunday to look into the state’s forest issues.
Sources said the minister would meet the forest department officials on Sunday.
He will proceed to Kaziranga the next day to assess the park infrastructure and talk to the guards about their problems.
Ramesh will visit Majuli on Tuesday.
The issues that are to be discussed are the late release of funds from the state government at the field level, increased protection in wildlife areas, recent spurt in poaching at Orang and Kaziranga and encroachment in Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) areas.
Project Tiger denied the Manas tiger reserve funds for 2009-10, as the state government failed to release funds to the park at the right time.
As a result, the park authorities failed to submit utilisation certificates. The money was for relocation of villagers from the core areas.
“As Ramesh is fully conversant with the ground situation in Assam with facts and figures, the state forest department will have to seize the opportunity to get more from him. We do not want to put up a sorry face and hence meetings are being held to chalk out those issues which could be brought before him,” a forest department source said.
The minister wished to see whether the state forest department is preparing a long-term rhino conservation project, after a two-member committee submitted a report on the proposed action plan for Orang National Park.
“Rapid recent encroachment in forests areas of BTAD in anticipation that the even the recent encroachers will get settlement under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act is a matter of serious concern. This will basically ruin the future of forests and wildlife, which will affect the local rural economy. If we lose those forests such as Ripu Chirang, Sonai-Rupai and others, we are basically pushing the elephants and tigers to the brink of local extinction,” the source said.
Ramesh would discuss the department’s action plan on the utilisation of the funds meant for the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority.
The department will inform the minister on rhino conservation and on two externally-aided projects.
Ramesh would also look into the steps the state government was taking on climate change.
