Tricked into joining the militant organisation, facing years of hardship in makeshift camps and separation from their dear ones are the tales of woe of some of the women ULFA cadres.

Hardcore Savita Choudhury, who along with her husband Madhav surrendered recently, will fulfill a long cherished desire of meeting her in-laws for the first time at Patacharkuchi village in lower Assam’s Barpeta district.

Mother of a seven-month old baby boy, she had always wished to lead the life of an ordinary housewife, Savita said. "The course of my destiny changed when I was tricked into joining ULFA in 2000."

Savita, one of the 30 militants to lay down arms before the Army authorities, said she got married in 2001 in a simple wedding held in a Bhutan camp and attended by top ULFA leaders including "deputy commander-in-chief" Raju Barua.

"After my baby was born, discomfort of the camp irked me as the basic amenities were lacking and I felt that my child was not getting the proper upbringing that he deserved," she said.

The story of another ULFA cadre, Rina Das was, however, quite different as she was not so lucky as Savita to surrender along with her husband Nipul Sharma, a ‘doctor’ in the outfit’s headquarters.

Das, who was tricked into joining the ULFA in 2000 by one Nagen Das, has not met her husband for the last two years.

Das decided to join the mainstream as she was facing a lot of hardships with her two-year-old baby in the various makeshift camps. She hopes that her husband will join her soon and they lead a normal family life.

The story of another woman cadre Renu Kalita, who also surrendered, is much the same.

Kalita was arrested by the police about two years back but she managed to escape. She had agreed to surrender as she realised the futility of an armed struggle against the people of one’s own community.

She said no proper food was provided in the camps, basic amenities of living were lacking and above all medicines and medical facilities were mostly non-existent.

Kalita joined the outfit in the early ’90s and was married to Arabinda Deka alias Toidul Medhi in a camp in Bhutan but at present she has no contact with him.

The ULFA cadres revealed that in Bhutan camps there were about 15 family quarters where couples were allowed to stay.

DANGER FROM MICRO MOTHS

A team of Zoologists has collected over 7,000 specimens referable to more than 500 species of microlepidotream moths. JK Grewal, formerly of the Department of Zoology at the Handique Girls’ College led the quest.

Of the collected specimens, 50 are authentically identified. This work is a part of the All India Co-ordinated Project on Taxonomy (AICOPTAX) Research on Microlepidoptera, initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Dr H. S. Rose of Punjab University, Patiala, an eminent lepidopterists, is the Co-ordinator and Chief Principal Investigator.

For the smooth operation of the project, five zones have been set up in the country and Dr Grewal heads the  NE region zone. On March 1, 2000, the project started its operation and it will continue till March 31, 2004. The project is aimed at capacity building in taxonomy and it envisages establishment of centres for research in identified priority gap areas — as for example, virus, bacteria, microlepidoptera in the field of taxonomy, education and training and strengthening the organisations like the Zoological Survey of India as the co-ordinating units.

The tasks assigned to the coordinators and collaborators under the project are survey, collection, identification, preservation, maintenance of the collections and taxonomic databanks, development of the identification manuals and also imparting training to college teachers, students and local communities in parataxonomy. Grewal and her team colleagues Sarfaraj Newaj and  Diganta Sarma, both junior research fellows, have also collected detailed information about the distribution of various microlepidoptera species in the region, like the host plants, place of availability, physical condition of the region, — including climatic and topographical condition etc, through regular intensive and extensive survey-cum-collection trips to various areas, Grewal said.
Her team has surveyed most of the region, including Sikkim and North Bengal, during the pre and post-monsoon season for the last three years. The species of micro-moths are quite large in number compared to the butterfly species. In India, there are little more than 1,500 species of butterfly, whereas the number of species of micro-moths is 200 times ore than the butterflies. But, till date, only about two per cent of the micro-moth species in the country has been studied and identified, she said.

On the significance of the study, she said that the study would finally help the forest departments in evolving plant protection measures. For, she explained, most of the young ones of micro-moths feed on the internal tissues of the plants and make tunnels in the tissues of the leaves, stems, roots and fruits etc and thus act as destructive agents to plants.

Cnophalocrocis medanalis, one of the most destructive insects for paddy plants, also belong to the micro-moth species. This insect folds the leaves of paddy plants around their bodies and feed on the chlorophyll of the epidermal cells of the leaves.

TCS EYES…..

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) considers Tripura a favourable and fertile ground for investments only in the much awaited 500 MW Monarchawk project but also other areas like Information Technology and infrastructure development.

Tata Consultancy Service which cooperates with the Japan Bank of International Co-operation (JBIC)sent two senior officials, Sudhir Ahluwalia and Chaitali Mukherjee, both working in Social Sector Group of the company to Agartala on 18 June for detailed study of the industrial prospect of the state.

Ahluwalia heads the Social Sector Group. Mukherjee works as a consultant in the TCS. Both visited 84MW NEEPCO Power Project and Industrial Growth Centre at Bodhjungnagar, near Agartala. They held a series of meetings with Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, his ministerial colleagues and senior officials on development achieved so far and the future potential of
the state.

The state government made a presentation of various large projects, which have been prepared and proposed for funding by World Bank and other International Aid Agencies. These projects included Road infrastructure development project, Tripura Agriculture Development Project, Integrated Forest Development Project, Irrigation and Floor Management Project, International Budha Centre at Pilak, Greater Agartala Development
Project and the NEEPCO Power Project at Monarchawk.

Discussion also zeroed in on other potential projects like Tripura State Wide Area Network (TS-WAN), and setting up of School of Information Technology.

Later officials who interacted with the visiting experts said the TCS team gave some indication about the likely flow of foreign investments. For instance, according to them, the JBIC may be interested in some people-oriented projects like Integrated Tribal Development. ITD will fascinate the donor agency if it incorporates socio-economic components like education through residential schools, Information Technology component, upgrading basic amenities including electricity, capacity building as well as economic development", a
senior official said.

Some time ago, JBIC teams visited Tripura   to study various aspects of funding the Rs 1200 crore Monarchawk power project. But it has since shifted its priority from big projects to people oriented programmes, it is said.

Other than Tripura, the financial giant found Meghalaya as an attractive investment destination.

GREENING BEAUTY

Even if the once virgin forest of Tripura are said to be the remnants of the past  due to large scale denudation, it still remains a  biologically diversified state coming very close to the Western Ghats and Andaman and Nicobar. The state covers only 0.32 percent area of India but is listed as one of the 26 endemic centres.

Estimates are that Tripura is home to ill posses 1545 plant species with 28 varieties, 379 tree species , 320 shrubs , 581 herbs , 165 climbers , 34 ferns , 45 epiphytes  and 16 climbing
shrubs ( Out of these , seven are endangered, seven endemic and 18 rare species).

The state can also boast of possessing 24 species of orchids and 266 species of medicinal plants.

The maximum plant diversity index, a measure to define biological diversity, stands at 5.23, which is said to be highest in India. The faunal diversity also is vivid as the state has recorded as many as 90 species including 21 endangered species. Seven out of the 15 non- human primates have been recorded in the Tripura forests including the rare spectacled
monkey.

“Despite all these, there are very few works done for research purposes and the records of the biological diversity at the micro species level need to be updated ", feels a local forest officer.
.
M K Sharma, Director General of Forests visited Agartala at the request of the state government to suggest ways and means to rehabilitate the tribal population living in the notified forest or in its fringe." Though, there is no accurate  figure,  it is estimated that 
the depleted forest in the state stands at about 49,000 hectares out of 6.6 lakh hectares of notified forests", he said. Despite these depletions, the state showed signs of increase in
forest cover under satellite imagery recently. The state government has also approved the National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan to conserve biodiversity under people to
people programme.

Besides Tripura, according to the latest Forest survey, only Assam registered an increase in the green cover.  In fact, Assam ranks fifth in the country in terms of growth of forest cover.

State of Forest Report, 2001, published recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Tripura's total forest cover has gone up by 1320 square kilometers according the digital imagery system done through satellite.

"Tripura's total forest cover in 1999 was 5745 square kilometers which increased to 7065 square kilometers in 2001, an increase by 1320 square kilometers", said Chief Wild Life Warden and Principal Chief Conservator Md Ayub Khan, adding that now the forest cover
in the state stands at 67.5 percent, an increase by 12.8 percent.   Forest cover has increased both in terms of dense forest as well as open forest, according to him.

Tripura’s dense forest in 1999 was 2228 sq kms and open forest was 3517 sq kms. These increased to 3463 sq kms and 3602 sq kms in 2001.
 
Assam had a forest cover of 23,688 square kilometers with 14,517 square kilometers dense forest and 9171 kilometers of open forest in 1999, which increased to 27,714 square kilometers in 2001, an increase by 4026 kilometers.

All other Northeastern states, however, showed a declining trend in the available forest resources.  Forest covers of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland showed declining trend by 802 sq.km, 458 sq km, 844 sq km and 819 sq km respectively, whereas Meghalaya showed a marginal decrease in forest cover by 49 square kilometers. Sikkim, now a part of the North east also managed to increase their forest cover by 75 square kilometers.

Overall, the Northeastern region registered an increase of forest by 8119 square kilometers. In 1999, the forest cover of the region was 16,3779 square kilometers which increased to 16,6173 square kilometers in 200 , a growth of 8119 square kilometers only confinement to Tripura and Assam.

According to the State Forest Report, out of the 35 state and UTs  in the country, 28 state and UTs increased their forest cover while seven lost their forest drastically including the five NE
states where once maximum forest density used to be recorded.

At the national level, maximum growth of forest cover was recorded in Kerala (5237 sq kms), Karnataka (4524 sq kms) and Tamil Nadu (4404 sq kms). Overall, the forest cover in the country has gone up by 38,245 square kilometers which about six percent over the 1999 records. In 1999, the forest cover in the country was 637,293 sq km which now has gone up to 675,538 sq km. There is also a significant increase of 34,580 sq km registering nine percent of dense forest while in open forest it is 3665 sq km an increase of 1.4 percent.

The states to have registered  growth are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka,Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadwip and Pondicherry.  Apart from the five N E states, Andaman and Nicobar and Chattisgarh are the only states to register negative growth .However, the satellite imagery has some limitations as it includes everything green on the earth surface and it is not the exact
measurement of the forest as done manually. Even tea estates come under the forests.

FUMING LAPANG

Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang is fuming these days. His ire is targetted at Zoramthanga and old betenoire Purno Sangma.

This is a turf war of a different variety. An interesting one at that.

There is nothing wrong in the display of possessiveness of one’s turf. But problem comes if every one else is viewed with suspicion as is the case with chief minister D. D. Lapang. He is putting any move for peace under the lens and if he is convinced, generally he is never short of conviction in his pet beliefs, he doesn’t mind going public. Like he did with Purno Sangma some time ago. Like with Zoramthanga now.

‘Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga is trying to sneak in into the affairs of Meghalaya through the back-door instead of coming through the proper channel’, Lapang says reacting to media reports that Zoramthanga is much sought after by the Meghalaya militants to hold negotiations with the Centre.

So, he administered a stiff warning: My state government would take action against those hobnobbing with militant outfits in the state.

“Like the Khasi Jaintia Church Leaders’ Forum, the Mizoram chief minister should have approached my Government through proper channels if he was interested in holding negotiations with our banned outfits,” the Chief Minister made it clear in the state assembly. He added that the Church Leaders’ Forum has been appointed to act as mediators in facilitating talks with banned outfits in the state. 

Taking serious offence to the Mizoram Chief Minister’s reported moves to establish links with banned Meghalaya outfits, Lapang said his government did not recognize ‘unauthorized and self-appointed’ negotiators and would not hesitate to take action against them according to the law of the land.

Turning to P A Sangma claim that he has the sanction of the Centre to ‘facilitate’ talks with banned ultras, specially the Garo Hills-based A’chik National Volunteers’ Council (ANVC), the chief minister maintained that New Delhi has not authorized any one for the purpose. He reiterated that anybody holding parleys with banned outfits without authority would be treated as having nexus with the ultras.

Lapang questioned why Purno Sangma was unable to bring even a single ultra for talks with the government despite claiming to be the facilitator for negotiations. On the claims made by Sangma, Zoramthanga and arrested former minister Adolph Lu Hitler R. Marak that the trio were facilitating talks with banned outfits in Meghalaya, the chief minister asserted: “We do not recognize their authority to hold negotiations with the banned outfits by side-lining the state government. If they continue to do so, the law will take its own course.”

 SANGMA’S SALVO

NCP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma is turning his guns on chief minister D. D. Lapang and the Congress-led Meghalaya Government in that order. Ammunition came his way when the state police arrested former forest minister Adolph Lu Hitler R Marak Meghalaya accusing him of having a nexus with the militants. Sangma considers the arrest as a crude attempt to derail the peace process initiated by him and Marak.

Addressing newsmen after visiting the former NCP MLA in the Shillong Civil Hospital, Sangma, who is an MP from Tura, described the arrest of Hitler Marak as ‘politically motivated’. And he charged the Lapang Government with indulging in ‘political vendetta’,

Sangma questioned the seriousness of the Meghalaya Government to solve the problem of militancy in the State.

“Insurgency is a political problem and needed to be politically tackled,” he stressed.

He produced a letter purportedly written by Wanding K Marak, general secretary of the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) expressing his group’s willingness to negotiate with the Government of India within the frame work of the Indian Constitution.

ANVC has since sent feelers saying it was keen to hold talks with the Centre sans its demand for separate Garo Homeland, Sangma claimed.

Displaying another letter from Union Home Minister L K Advani that acknowledged the receipt of the ANVC’s feelers, the former Lok Sabha Speaker said: “This letter proves my role as a facilitator is recognised by the Government India.”

He also maintained that Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has been assigned to hold talks with the militant groups in the north-eastern States.

OPERATION KAZIRANGA
                                                                                                             
Trade in rhino horn, ivory, tiger bones, tiger penis and tiger skins, bear bile, and musk to name just a few is a mega bucks businesses. Only problem is it is illegal to indulge in such trade. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) prescribes steps on how to curb the dealings. India is an early signatory to the convention and has pledged to check illegal trade in wildlife. Yet, the trade continues to flourish across India, north-east including.

Assam can be regarded as gateway of wildlife trade in South-East Asia.  Assam boasts of being a habitat for the endangered species like rhino, tiger, elephant, leopard and bear, animals on which substantial amount of illegal wildlife trade is on.  The rhino poaching in
past few years, especially in Kaziranga could be minimized because of dedicated service rendered by forest officials, with active support from Charwa Gunners under the aegis of Gajraj Corps. Look at the price list. One rhino horn fetches up to Rs. 16, 000, 00 per kg in
in Kathmandu or Hongkong.  A kilogram of Tiger bone goes for Rs. 40,000/ in Nepal alone..

.
Nepal’s open border with India, lack of proper legislation, and coordination between the authorities continue to hinder the task of combating illegal trade in endangered and threatened species like tiger, leopards and rhino in the country.  Illegal trade in bones, horn,
skins, musk and other organs extracted from endangered animals like the Royal Bengal Tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, bear, Tibetan antelope, musk deer, spotted and snow leopards, and critically endangered python has often been noticed in Nepal. 

Huge amounts of wildlife organs are transported to China, one of the biggest consumers of these products, from India, through Nepal.  The key entry points of wildlife contraband being
transported to and from India are Kakarbitta and Biratnagar region in Eastern Nepal, Birganj area in Central Nepal, Bhairahawa, Nepalganj, Dhangadi and Mahendranagar  area in the Western Nepal.  Even the general area Kathmandu remained a key site for the wildlife trade.

A postal-pack containing 130 kg of tiger bones was confiscated in Humla some years back.  The packet was on its way to China, where demand for traditional Chinese medicines
made out of tiger bones is very high.  Tribhuwan International Airport remains a key entry point for wildlife contraband.

Myanmar is another country that has been used as transporting route for wildlife contrabands to other Asian countries including China, Thailand, Hongkong, Korea and Taiwan. Myanmar also happens to be one of the dens of illegal arms supplier and insurgents of North East.

A secret meeting of international rhino horn smugglers and buyers was held at 4th Electric Road, Hongkong in towards end of July 2001, where they had decided to carry out a series of Rhino poaching in India, especially in Assam in 2002-2003.  There was urgency for the deal. Rhino horn stocks have depleted considerably in the international market as poaching was brought under check in Assam.

Militant- Poachers nexus

There is no denying that there is a nexus between the militants and wild life poachers. A careful strategy needs to be put in place after a thorough analysis of illegal trade. While the poachers are buying peace by financing militant outfits, some of the insurgent groups appear to have taken to direct dealings with an eye on revenue for buying arms.

Rhinos are a lucrative target because of the money they generate.  If 20 rhinos are poached in Assam in a single year it could fetch up to Rs.3, 20,000,00/- in the international market at the rate of 16,00,00/- per kg of rhino horns (assuming one rhino horn will be of 1 kg). 
Further, illegal ivory trade could fetch around Rs. 20,000,00/- per year, tiger bones and skins could fetch another 20,000,00/- per annum. 

One name that comes up for mention in this connection is of Hekta Sema, staying at Dimapur. It is said he has been involved in wildlife trade as buyer and seller, who also happened to be the close associates of NSCN.

Given the wild nature of the wild life trade, the forest department roped in the Army and the result was the deployment of Charwa Gunners of Dah Division of Gajraj Corps, in the anti-poaching operations.  Operation Kaziranga followed. Most poachers of Rhinos in particular took to their heels

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