GUWAHATI: The Post Graduate Students’ Union (PGSU) of Gauhati University has started an online campaign to stop coal mining in Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam.
The students have started the online campaign against National Board for Wildlife’s (NBWL) move of permitting Coal India Limited to carry out extraction in 98.59 hectares of the forest’s land.
The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam, is home to 47 mammal, 47 reptile and 30 butterfly species and the forest is also referred to as "The Amazon of the East" owing to its large area and thick forests.
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Speaking to G Plus, Moon Talukdar, General Secretary of the PGSU, Gauhati University said, “The National Board for Wildlife has allotted 98.59 hectares of land from Dehing Patkai for coal mining to North Eastern Coal Field. Locals fear felling of trees and destruction of the environment which is completely eco-friendly. The practices of locals and tribes there are all environment-friendly.”
“Even reporters cannot enter there and there is no footage of the illegal mining happening there. Reporters that do go in are threatened by local goons. The coal mafia has been operating illegally in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh for a long time, but giving off a chunk of the rainforest for legal coal mining is what concerns us now,” added the student leader.
Students of the university have created posters and placards carrying slogans to raise awareness about the issue which are now being circulated along with the hashtags #savedehingpatkai and #saveamazonoftheeast trending on various social media platforms. They have planned to take the initiative further and take the campaign forward after completion of the lockdown period.
