The Assam government has been urged to take action against Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) for non-compliance of the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal’s orders to demolish a wall erected on a major elephant corridor.
The refinery is in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district and a 2.2 km wall around its extended township is partly on the 133.45-hectare Deopahar Reserve Forest besides blocking the migration route of elephants. The reserve forest falls within the No-Development Zone around Kaziranga National Park, about 200 km east of Guwahati.
Hearing a petition by Golaghat-based green activist Rohit Choudhury, the NGT had on August 24, 2016, ordered the public sector refinery to demolish the wall. But the refinery pulled down only a 289-metre stretch of the wall within a month’s deadline set by NGT.
The case was taken to the Supreme Court, which on January 18 this year ordered NRL to comply with the NGT order and demolish the entire wall.
The Assam government and NRL have shown utter disregard for the order of the NGT, Mr. Choudhury wrote in his letter to the State Chief Secretary Alok Kumar on February 20. He also outlined the penalties under relevant sections of the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010 and pointed out that letting the wall be would be contempt of the apex court’s order.
“It is stated that the illegal boundary wall constructed by NRL in the Deopahar forest of No-Development Zone be demolished immediately. In case no action is taken urgently to demolish the said boundary wall, then the undersigned will be constrained to take legal recourse,” Mr. Choudhury wrote with copies of the letter to the Supreme Court, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and other senior administrative officers.
NRL officials, however, said the refinery has taken no decision yet about removing the wall. While one officer said they were not aware of any direction of the NGT or the Supreme Court, a spokesperson on Friday said they have maintained “status quo because of a Gauhati High Court stay against the demolition”.
Notably, the Golaghat district administration had, on February 14, ordered the refinery to demolish the wall within a week. The deadline ended on Thursday.
“We are pursuing the matter,’ the district’s Deputy Commissioner Dhiren Hazarika said.
