Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 16 (EMN): Manipur’s Forest and Environment Minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar on Fri. informed the ongoing assembly that the government was taking up steps to monitor and prevent contamination of Thoubal River. He was responding to queries raised by opposition legislators about the reported contamination of Thoubal river that passes through many assembly constituencies including Andro, Wangkhem, and Thoubal.
The minister said that the department had taken steps including alerting the district authorities. Shyamkumar appealed to the public to help in conserving the state’s forest.
On Tuesday, opposition Congress MLA Surjakumar Okram had sought attention of the ongoing assembly over the report of contamination of Thoubal River due to washing of gravels quarried from the hill slopes in the upstream. He even expressed the need to check whether the water is still fit for human consumption or harmful to health.
Various local clubs of Thoubal district continued to stage sit in demonstration in some Thoubal areas on Fri. as part of their save river campaign which is on since the last few days.
Reacting to the questions raised by the opposition Congress legislators, Shyamkumar referred to India’s State of Forest Report of 2017. He said that Manipur stood first among all the Northeast states while protecting its Reserve Forests (RF) areas. There are about 37 RF in the state covering an area of 984.25 sq km.
Interestingly Manipur has also increased 263 sq km in forest cover from 2015 report, according to 2017 report which was released recently. Also he admitted that the department was planning to urge the centre to raise a Forest Protection Force in order to conserve state’s forest area in view of the report of illegal encroachment.
Despite lack of manpower, the department has taken steps in 85 cases of encroachment including 53 in Heingang and 32 in Langol hill areas, he said. Around 25 lakh samplings were distributed for plantation during 2017-18 against the 12 lakh in 2016-17 besides taking up plantation on the road median measuring around 25 km in and around Imphal.
