In India, the Government of Assam had declared Garbhanga as wildlife sanctuary in 2022. But the Government withdrew that status this year. This unfortunate decision was taken in a cabinet meeting on 25.8.23 to dereserve the Garbhanga Wildlife Sanctuary. It was issued by the Environment and Forest Department in gazette notification vide ECF no 197492/44 on 26th September, 2023. Such regressive action is highly regrettable since the likely increase in air pollution will increase the risk of respiratory infections like asthma, heart disease and lung cancer among people. The higher the loss of forest cover, the higher the incidence of air pollution. It also reduces the precipitation leading to ecological imbalance. I lodged protest against this.
Also I protested against thousands of valuable trees being felled during the construction of four-lane roads across the state of Assam, whereas the Prime Minister of India had earlier promised that such road-side trees would be relocated in other places during the widening of roads. Entire Assam has seen a huge loss of green cover due to this felling of trees. This has led to enormous increase of temperature in the state in the recent times.
I seek attention of IUCN members to the issue of deforestation in Assam so that the biodiversity can be protected.