Guwahati, June 2: After a part of reserve forest on the Assam- Nagaland border allegedly diverted for the establishment of an Assam police commando battalion, the National Green Tribunal(NGT) has asked the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to constitute a three-member committee to survey the area.
The NGT issued notices to the Environment Ministry, the Assam government, the Assam Forest Department, and two others to file counter-affidavits within four weeks from May 29.
This followed the hearing of a petition by eastern Assam-based environmental activist Rohit Choudhury against the diversion of the forest land.
According to the petition, Assam’s former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force, M.K. Yadav had “misused his power and position to illegally diverted a large part of the forest areas without fulfilling the requirements of compensatory afforestation and net present value”.
The battalion was deemed necessary to prevent people from Nagaland from encroaching upon the forest along the interstate border.
Assam and Nagaland has a long-standing boundary dispute that has claimed more than 150 lives between 1979 and 2021.
In 2023, the Environment Ministry criticized M.K Yadava, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) for approving the construction of a commando battalion unit on about 44 hectares of forest land on the Assam-Mizoram to deal with encroachment by people and agencies in Mizoram.
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