Kaziranga to have ropeways, boating facilities

A plan has been mooted to facilitate boating on Difloo river flowing through the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) and install a ropeway covering a distance of three kms inside the Park. Survey work for the projects planned by the Bokakhat district administration, Forest and Tourism departments was started recently. The work has been undertaken by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC). Sub Divisional Officer (C) of Bokakhat subdivision said that a proposal for the ropeway from Mihimukh to Kathpar (3km) will be sent to the Tourism department only after completion of the survey work. The boating will be started soon on an experimental basis, he said. Meanwhile, a high-level meeting was organised by the Forest department lat Kohora to discuss various issues related to the Park. The meeting deliberated mainly on construction of over-bridges crossing the National Highway 37 at those places which are used by the animals as corridors for seasonal shifting of habitat to Burhapahar area especially during the floods. It was also decided in the meeting that, with the help of the slides containing information on sophisticated technology on animal safety, a strategy will be chalked out to ensure safety to the animals in the Park. Centre to allow plantation by indistries in forests Forest products are one of the major revenue earners for the states in the North-East and the Union Forest Ministry is considering the idea of allowing wood-based industries, particularly paper and pulp, to start plantation in forest areas. 

According to Director General (Forests) N K Joshi, the government is rethinking to revive the wood-based industries and is considering to invite the industries for plantation in forest areas. The Pulp Manufacturers Association has subimitted a memorandum to the Centre in this regard. Following a plea by the Agarwood Exporters Association, the government is also considering the declassification of agar as timber and forest produce so that it could be brought under the plantation crop to help oil extractors do business legally. Assam has urged the Centre to lift restrictions on the trade of the aromatic agar oil that goes into making high-end perfume brands like Elisabeth Arden, Polo, Ralph Laurent and Christian Dior.

According to the Assam Forest Department the laws prohibiting plantation of agar trees and extraction of its oil were fraught with double standards and it makes sense to legalise the trade that illegally fuels the lucrative perfume industry in West Asia. Agar tree yields the oil after its trunk is infected by a fungus. Trade in agar oil had started in the 18th Century in Assam and is available in abundance in the Hojai area of Nagaon district. The best agar oil originates in Assam and is clandestinely exported to the UAE for a price as high as 25,000 dollars per kg, thereby fetching the traders around 20 million dollars annually. The agar distillation units employ nearly 50,000 people.

Assam grows 40 per cent of the world’s agar trees that are also found across Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Most of it is found in homesteads and private plantations except the Gibbon sanctuary in Upper Assam where the plant was introduced in 1975 to maintain its genepool. In 1980, the Forest Conservation Act enforced restrictions on agar cultivation and a decade later the Botanical Survey of India came out with a report based on which CITES and the Central Government listed the tree as an endangered species.

However, import of agar wood from Myanmar and South East Asian countries is allowed under the open general license while the EXIM policy authorises the export of agar oil from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi ports.

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