The Hindu : Other States / Assam News : Quarrying blocks elephant corridor

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Monday, Jul 04, 2005

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Quarrying blocks elephant corridor

Sushanta Talukdar

Biodiversity under threat, say conservationists

GUWAHATI: Aranyak, a society for biodiversity conservation in the North-East, has urged Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to close down stone quarries in a key elephant corridor within the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve.

An Aaranyak team recently found 12 stone queries operating within the reserve near Numaligarh. The team found that the blasting, which takes place just 10 km. from the Kaziranga National Park, hinders elephant migration. Since settlements have come up near the Numaligarh refinery, elephants can neither move towards Nambor Forest nor return to Kaziranga National Park.

They are stranded in the area between Borchapori-Ponka-Dhudang chapori-Numaligarh TE area of Golaghat district.

Organising secretary of Aaranyak, Dhruba Jyoti Kalita, said in a press release that the elephants have become violent following the blocking of the migration corridor.

Aaranyak warned the Government that the quarrying in the foothills of Karbi Anglong, adjacent to Kaziranga, posed grave threats to the national park's wetlands and grasslands and could endanger the rhino population.

"It is learnt that the Kaziranga National Park authorities earlier in 2004 voiced their protest at the permission to operate stone quarries in the Numaligarh area. However, the Ministry of Environment and Forests had granted clearance for the stone quarries, jeopardising the future of the elephant in particular and Kaziranga National Park as a whole," Mr. Kalita said.

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