Novanita Sharma
New Year greetings to everyone.
Every New Year begins with renewed hope and vitality. Often marked with new resolutions, the beginning of a new year never fails to ushers hope to the modern world of human beings. Hope is the elixir which drives each of us through the mesh of life, we live every moment of our life in hope of something good to happen. The dawn of a new year often calls for introspective contemplations, an inward journey to recollect our efforts, the moments of triumphs and failures which marked the previous year. A retrospective glance in the year 2021 brings several celebratory moments to the environment activist in me, the year 2021 marked with landmark judgements for biodiversity conservation movement in Assam included the final notification for Dehing Patkai National Park, a huge turn of success for the three decades long rainforest conservation movement of Assam led by Nature’s Beckon. The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary with a total area of 111.19sqkm got upgraded to Dehing Patkai National Park with an expanded area of 231.65sqkm, the national park includes the Jeypore rainforest in it. Jeypore constitutes the most verdant patch of the contiguous rainforest spread across the Dibrugarh -Tinsukia districts of Assam. The inclusion of Jeypore in the national park is a reason of jubilation for Nature’s Beckon and a significant step towards preservation of this biodiversity rich rainforest patch of Assam. Apart from this, the creation of Raimona National Park, constituting an area of 422sqkm of pristine forest in the Kokrajhar districts of Assam ringed future hope for effective biodiversity conservation in India’s ecologically rich states of Assam and Northeast India. Nature’s Beckon put forward the demands to create two new protected areas in the Goalpara district of Assam for the protection of the last remaining natural forests of Goalpara district. The organization submitted petitions to the Chief Minister of Assam Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, for the upgradation of Ajgar Reserved Forest and Pancharatna Reserved Forest to Ajgar Wildlife Sanctuary and Pancharatna Wildlife Sanctuary respectively. These two forest areas represent the past forest glory of Goalpara district which gradually declined due to lack of conservation measures to protect the rich natural forests of this region. The Pancharatna forest plays a crucial role in Elephant conservation, this forest has been identified as one of the rare natural forests chosen by the wild Elephants for child-birth, i.e, wild elephants come to this forest to give birth to their young ones. This practice has been followed by Elephants for generations through an unknown period of time. Hence, legal protection of these forest spaces is indispensable for the preservation of the last remaining natural forests of Goalpara district, a natural heritage for Assam which in turn is also very significant for future Elephant conservation in Assam and India. The year 2021 also witnessed the launch of ‘Ganesh Mangal Yatra’, a 10 years long holistic Elephant conservation program of Nature’s Beckon. This program envisages to bring a paradigm shift in effective conservation of Asian Elephants in Assam through people’s participation. The program intends to facilitate protection of existing natural elephant habitats in Assam, it will also mobilize common people and government agencies to preserve the wetlands to ensure availability of natural feed for Elephants. Ganesh Mangal Yatra is a pragmatic step towards resolving the deepening man- elephant crisis situation in Assam and entire India. The present state government gestured their support to Nature’s Beckon’s demands for the creation of Ajgar WLS and Pancharatna WLS for protection of these forest areas. The assurance of the Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma to bring the necessary reforms in the Assam Forest Department along with the noticeable promptness on part of governance towards environment and forest issues is a flicker of hope for the nature loving people of Assam. The cause of environment and forest has always been downplayed by successive political regimes in India, when faced with other public demands of the electorate. India with its second largest human population in the world competes with wildlife and biodiversity for the natural resources, land, air and water in this country; it leaves very thin chances for wildlife and forests to survive the battle. Environment, forest and wildlife issues rarely make it to the political manifestos, they don’t figure out in the public psyche. However, the scene in Assam seems to have evolved over a period of time. The three decades long biodiversity conservation movement of Assam led by Nature’s Beckon through years of unstinted advocacy and steadfast environment activism created the ripple of change in people’s mindset and approach towards issues related to forests and environment in Assam and Northeast India. This palpable change in public psyche is reflected in the shift of political will from complete ignorance to receptive action in Assam. I hope this new year brings more effective changes in the mode of action from a dynamic governance of the new political leadership in Assam, we look forward to an ecologically secure economic framework in Assam. Let the people of Assam take precedence along with efficient governance in leading the biodiversity conservation movement for rest of India. This calls for whole hearted participation of everyone in this biodiversity conservation movement wherein tools like eco-tourism, green literature and environment education will contribute in strengthening this people’s movement and spreading its essence in rest of the country. We the people of Assam and Northeast India who are nurtured with the amazing natural bounty of our motherland right from our young days do have a responsibility to establish connection of rest of the country and the world with the beauty and magnanimity of Mother Nature. We are blessed to be born amidst few of the richest forests and tranquil mountains found on this planet, while we enjoy the rare privileges our responsibilities as Indian citizens and compassionate human beings must not fade away. We must protect our pristine forests, the rolling wilderness of our mountains, valleys and rivers to save our future. This natural richness is our treasure, the only hope for our future generations. Once we learn to respect these natural treasures, the world will undeniably follow us. We must set the trend and now is the time to do it. Let India and the world look towards east with love and respect for our forests, our mountains, our rivers and every wilderness of Assam and Northeast India. Let India rise through our resolute and compassionate actions, let every sentient being benefit from our collective efforts, let our green consciousness be the guiding force for us and an example for rest of the world.