Central funds to revive forest

Cachar

Barail wildlife sanctuary March 11 : The Union forest and environment ministry has finally decided to sanction funds for the upkeep of the Barail wildlife sanctuary in Cachar. An estimated Rs 2.5 crore will be required for the improvement of this new reserve forest over a span of five years. The Barail wildlife sanctuary was elevated from a reserve forest to a protected forest following an Assam government notification on June 19, 2004, under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The sanctuary occupies 32,624 hectares spread over Cachar district and its adjoining North Cachar Hills district. The south Assam conservator of forests, P. Suryanarayan, said the last obstacle to the sanctuary’s development had been removed. The Centre will release funds in phases to demarcate the sanctuary to prevent illegal encroachment. Suryanarayan said they would start by setting up boundary pillars and deploy more security personnel of the Assam Forest Protection Force inside the sanctuary. At least five companies of the force will be deployed to prevent poaching. The boundaries of the sanctuary have been already demarcated. While on its eastern side, the sanctuary will begin from the banks of the Daloo river in Cachar’s Udarbond block, the southern boundary will stretch from Maraocherra up to Marilong on the Assam-Meghalaya border. The forest at present continues to be free of encroachers and no one will be allowed to inhabit forest space in future either. The sanctuary abounds in exotic fauna like the Chinese pangolin, flying fox, stump-tailed macaque, Rhesus macaque, capped langur, hoolock gibbon, Malayan sun bear, leopard, tiger, sambar, Indian bison and crestless Himalayan porcupine. The rare birds found here are the lesser adjutant stork, white-winged wood duck, slender-billed vulture, khaleej pheasant, wreathed hornbill and black-browed leaf warbler. The state forest and environment department has also proposed to upgrade 20,527 hectares of the Barak reserve forest, located on the southern fringes of Cachar district, into the district’s first biosphere reserve. The proposed biosphere reserve forest will be a treasure trove of medicinal plants and a rich array of rare animals, including the goral.