Assam: Tribal villagers near Chandubi protest felling of trees for roads

GUWAHATI: Tribal villagers settled around Chandubi Lake, one of the biggest tourist attractions (65 km south-west of Guwahati), have vowed to resist government bulldozers, if rolled out to uproot over-a-century-old saal trees in the forest land surrounding the freshwater lake.
State government is expediting a mega road construction project, close to the Assam-Meghalaya border zone, under the Asom Mala scheme. State highways, major district roads and stretches with economic importance are being upgraded under National Highway (NH) specifications under the project. Villagers gathered in the weekly Muduki market near the lake to oppose plans to cut hundreds of valuable trees for the road project.
Pakhiraj Rabha, president of the Rajapara Anchalik Janajatiya Juba Sangha, said, “We don’t need development at the cost of biodiversity. Local people want the administration and forest department to ensure that serenity of the dense forest, adjacent to the Chandubi or the core zone surrounding the lake, remains intact.”
Around 30 km of the road from the nearest town of Mirza up to Ranibari, near Chandubi, has already been completed earlier this year. This has doubled the breadth of the previous PWD road and has now transformed almost to the standard of a highway. But the road expansion project was not accelerated in the 3.5 km stretch from Ranibari to Chandubi amid opposition from local residents. At least 300 fringe villages are located within a radius of 3 km from the Chandubi Lake.
Local activist Dipmoni Rabha, adviser to Rajapara Bishnu Rava Juba Sangha, said the trees are the lifeline of the forest dwellers, though many of them did not get land rights over the years in the area. “The number of forest staff in the area are few but because of vigilance of villagers the dense forest around the lake are still intact. Cutting a tree here is like chopping off our body organs,” said Dipmoni.
People in the area were alarmed when they saw red marks put in the trees by “some surveyors” a few months ago. Sources in the forest department, however, told TOI that nearly 2,000 trees may have to be cut to extend the Asom Mala road close to the lake. “An estimated 680 mother trees, included in 2,000 trees, may fall, if the road is expanded further to the Chandubi Lake,” a senior official of the forest department said.
At Saturday’s meeting, most of the villagers agreed to allow the government to broaden the existing PWD road to some extent without cutting many trees. “Today’s meeting resolved that the road won’t be allowed to be expanded like a highway, as proposed,” said Pakhiraj, one of the organisers.