Forest village groups oppose Sikkim rail plans

File Photo

SNS, SILIGURI. 6 DECEMBER 21 : Although two organizations, Himalayan Forest Villagers' Organization (HFVO) and Uttar Banga Van-Jan Sromojibi Manch (UBVJSM) have thanked the state government for converting 79 forest villages into revenue ones in Darjeeling district, their members have decided to seek legal redress on several other issues by showcasing environmental threat.

A case has been recently filed in the National Green Tribunal, Kolkata, challenging the construction of the Sevoke Rangpo railway line, a project that seeks to include the Himalayan state of Sikkim in the country's railway map for the very first time.

Activists associated with the HFVO and the UBVISM have also protested "land-grab and unsustainable construction activities" in forest areas.

Addressing the press here today, leaders of the HFVO and the UBVJSM claimed that for the last two decades and more, the Hills have been "irresponsibly ravaged" in the name of economic development. "Of late, forest village lands have come under 'systematic encroachment' everywhere, from the Buxa Tiger Reserve in the East and the Hills and the Terai to the West, mostly under the pretext of the so-called ecotourism. Unscrupulous investors and tourism operators are on a land-grab spree. Forest and tribal land are changing hands illegally every day, and environmentally impermissible concrete buildings are coming up in the guise of 'Homestays,— said the leader of the HFVO, Lila Gurung.

According to Lal Singh Bhujel, a leader of the UBVJSM, the administration should not allow new constructions, particularly big buildings in ecologically and geologically unstable areas.

UBVJSM activists have demanded that the construction of dams should be stopped immediately on the rivers Teesta, Rammam, Rangeet and others.

The environment al activists have also demanded that an independent enquiry be held under judicial supervision into the environmental and social intact of the railway project as well as other big construction projects.

They also feel that widening of roads without adequate geological and ecological safeguards and prior assessments may create fresh problems in the Hills.

They further suggest ecologically acceptable afforestation drives throughout the Darjeeling Himalayas, comprising native species and through the Gram Sabhas.