The plan for a mega food park in Assam’s Soniptur district has been shelved after a visit by a team of wildlife experts found 50% of its area was encroaching on a major elephant corridor.
Officials of the Forest Department’s Northern Assam Circle and representatives of the World Wide Fund for Nature-India surveyed the area on July 3 along with the proprietor of the firm that was allotted land a year ago in the district’s Na-Ali area.
“The objective of the field verification was to ensure the status of land use, area coverage in relation to elephant movement, and a proposed elephant corridor. The verification revealed that the land is part of a very actively used elephant passage and setting up industry will cause severe disturbance to the movement of elephants,” Chief Conservator of Forests Jatindra Sarma said.
The survey and a series of protests from local organisations made the proprietor decide to withdraw from the project. Accordingly, the power distribution corporation was asked to disconnect a high-tension connection for the food park.
Sonitpur district people have also been protesting against similar food parks set up by herbal majors such as Patanjali and Dabur.