NEWS:

• The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) today strongly opposed the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)’s decision to allow coal mining in the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary and urged the government to immediately roll back the decision in order to save the Dehing Patkai, which is also known as the Amazon of the East.
• NBWL permission to Coal India Limited to carry out extraction in 98.59 hectares of the rainforest’s land, will completely destroy Dehing Patkai. Illegal mining has already damaged the rainforest.

Key Points

• The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is also known as the Jeypore Rainforest.
• It is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam.
• Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary lies.
• Fauna: Rare fauna found in the region include Chinese pangolin, flying fox, wild pig, sambar, barking deer, gaur, serow and Malayan giant squirrels.
  • It is the only sanctuary in India which is home to seven different species of wild cats - tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, golden cat, jungle cat and marbled cat.
  • Assamese macaque, a primate found in the forest, is in the red list of Near Threatened species.
• Flora: Dehing Patkai is a deciduous rainforest interspersed with semi-evergreen and lush green flora.

National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)

• National Board for Wildlife is a statutory Board constituted officially in 2003 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The NBWL is under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• The NBWL is chaired by the Prime Minister and is responsible for promotion of conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
• The board is ‘advisory’ in nature and can only advise the Government on policy making for conservation of wildlife.
• The standing committee of NBWL is chaired by the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
  • The standing committee approves all the projects falling within protected wildlife areas or within 10 km of them.