The ministry of environment and the state government of Assam have been rapped on their knuckles by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for their failure to stop the stone crushing units operating around the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve and in the Karbi-Anglong Elephant Reserve.
The NGT had asked both the state government and the ministry to respond to this unregulated quarrying taking place in the crucial “No Development Zone” (NDZ) especially since wildlife specialists had warned that this activity was adversely affecting the wildlife in the reserve.
There are 19 stone quarrying units operating in the NDZ, from which ten are located as close as five kilometres to the national park. The remaining nine have been found to be within a radius of 5-10 kilometres of the national park. These are not only destroying the surrounding habitat but noise levels have intensified to the extent that these have been found to be adversely impacting the large rhino population, tigers, wild buffalo and elephant populations in the reserve.
The environment ministry had issued a notification in 1966 declaring that no polluting activity could take place in NDZs located around wild life reserves without prior approval of the ministry. None of these reserves are reported to have sought permission from the ministry.
A petition filed by Assam-based environmentalist Rohit Chaudhary has sought directions from the NGT to shut down all these units.
Mr Chaudhary has expressed surprise that the state forest department officials have not taken any action so far.