HC notices to Centre, state & CIL on Dehing Patkai mining

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati high court on Thursday issued notices to the Centre, Assam government, Coal India and other stakeholders after taking up a suo motu case against mining of coal by Coal India Limited in Dehing Patkai, which is one of the last remaining lowland evergreen forests in India. The forest spreads across Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
The state government last week had clarified following widespread protests that it would “not give permission to mining by destroying nature”.The protests started on social media last month after National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) recommended mining of coal in the area, which is also an elephant reserve under a proposed Saleki Reserve Forest.
The bench of chief justice Ajay Lamba and Justice Soumitra Saikia took up the suo motu case based on a letter by a citizen. Two other separate writ petitions by advocates and concerned citizens of the state challenging the NBWL recommendations were also heard by the same bench on Thursday.
One of the petitioners Santanu Barthakur told TOI, “The court issued notices to Centre, state, various central and state government agencies and Coal India Ltd (CIL) and the next date of hearing has been fixed for the suo motu case and the other two PILs has been fixed on July 20.”
He added, “The chief justice informed us that he has registered a suo motu PIL on the matter,” said Barthakur, the advocate of one of the public PILs.
Another petitioner Mrinmoy Khataniar submitted in his petition, “The impugned action of the Respondent authority to allow mining ... totally ignores the provisions of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, Bio-Diversity Act, 2002.”
Rakhee S Chowdhury, the counsel for another petitioner, said the Centre and state government have been asked to file their responses by July 14.
National Board for Wild Life (NBWL)’s Standing Committee on April 7 discussed a proposal for use of 98.59 hectares of land from the Saleki proposed reserve forest land for a coal mining project by North-Easter Coal Field (NECF), a unit of Coal India Limited.
Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal while reacting to the mounting pressure to save Dehing Patkai elephant reserve in Upper Assam had asked forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya to visit the site, amid growing resentment over a proposed move to carry out coal mining in the rainforest, which is locally known as ‘Amazon of the East’.