The Last Rain Forest of the land

Sumit Barua

Disclaimer – This post contains elaborate opinion, few information, and some rant regarding the threat which Dehing Patkai is facing, and it might end up triggering some of you out there.

Due to the inception of Covid19 related lockdown, pollution level dropped down significantly and people started observing random sights from random locations, yet the Northeastern part of India remained invisible to everyone, like always (pun highly intended). Most of our protests and activism were to save the precious biodiversity or cultural identity, which nobody cared to listen and rather our movements were either highjacked to deviate from the core cause or re-branded us as the ‘culprit’ justifying all forms of negligence and oppression that the land has faced for decades.

A very recent example of such negligence occurred last month when the government allowed coal mining inside the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary. Known as “The Amazon of East” (another example of lack of regional identity), the Wild Life Sanctuary is the last surviving rain forest of Assam. Yes, that happed and hardly anyone raised any voice, and not only that, there are some who are actually trying to defend this action in the name of economic development. The common argument they are putting forward is that the wildlife sanctuary has an area of 11,119 hectors and the rain forest stretches up to 57,500 hectors, so Coal India Limited extracting Coal from 98.59 hectares of land should not be a big concern. Well, that’s the problem with uninformed/partially informed crowd where some would blindly applaud any decision taken by their favorite government without any background research whereas others are happy because of their upcoming personal gains. Though the NBWL has allowed the coal mining project on April 7, 2020, it is claimed by the locals and multiple other sources (not me, spare me from the torture please) that illegal mining of coal has been going by the coal mafias in the forest for long affecting the biodiversity of this virgin forestland. Rather than taking active steps to curb the mining in the region, the Government decided to legalize coal mining, due to which it is feared that the entire Rainforest might collapse.

The silence is scary, but what’s more frustrating is that some being indifferent about it, especially the people who can actually inform others through social media, all thanks to their huge “fan base”. This is not an exclusive case, but it has been happening for a long time. Even if some photo-activist or artist might end up taking this project, his or her prime intent would only be to bag some grant or secure some shows, packaged with a wrapper of empathy which does nothing to uplift the region. Rather than informing the masses and starting a political discussion (which they always claim in their artist statements and grant proposals), they would end up making this a topic of conversation for their intellectual colleagues while they sip some wine and smoke some cigarettes (actually its true for any other region in this planet, and to some extent, I am guilty of doing the same in the past). Also, why are the social media influencers and travel bloggers silent about this? Are Australian Forest or Mangroves of Maharashtra more important than lesser-known rainforests of Northeast? Why the are environmentalists and nature lovers not taking up this issue aggressively and passionately? Are the animals and trees of Northeast going to face similar discrimination, just like the people of Northeast have faced? Maybe for once share our plight without exoticizing or romanticizing it? Maybe share this piece of information because you just want to inform others and start a movement that might end up saving the last rain forest of Assam? Maybe I am being too harsh, but at this time of Covid19, where we can’t go for a conventional approach of activism, maybe the spread of information might help to trigger a new form of protest. So please take out some time and help spread some awareness so that we can come up with some concrete plans to save the rainforest.

If you have stayed this far and haven’t scrolled down to view the next kitten or dog video of Facebook, I would like to inform you more about the diverse flora and fauna of the region. To date, 47 mammal species, 47 reptile species and 30 butterfly species have been recorded in the Dehing Patkai rainforest, which also harbors about 293 bird species, belonging to 174 genera and 51 families. The majority is resident (63.7%), some are winter visitors (23.1% ), and very few are summer visitors (2.5%). With over 60 major species of trees and over 101 species of orchid, Dehing Patkai is a four-layered rainforest. The Dehing Patkai Forest region has a rich cultural heritage. There are more than a dozen different ethnic groups living in the area including the indigenous Assamese communities, particularly Tai Phake, Khamyang, Khampti, Singpho, Nocte, Ahom, Kaibarta, Moran and Motok, Burmese and few Tea Tribe communities.

If you have read this article completely, I would really like to thank you for your patience and would request you to do your part in saving the rainforest by helping to create awareness in any possible way till we reach some logical conclusion to this situation or maybe just share this information before you go ahead and enjoy some random meme.

(Image source – Film Facilitation Office)