Experts question nod to Assam distillery, term it a threat to river dolphin

Samudra Gupta Kashyap

The permission for setting up a distillery at Rampur in Kamrup district, about 30 km west of Guwahati, has raked up a controversy with environmentalists and NGOs claiming that effluents from the plant would not only have an adverse effect on agriculture but would also pose a major threat to the Gangetic river dolphins found in the Kulsi river.

A company called NV Distilleries & Breweries (Northeast) Pvt Ltd has been granted permission by the Ministry of Environment & Forests as well as the Pollution Control Board, Assam to set up its unit at Bartezpur village near Rampur.

With poaching being rampant in the Brahmaputra, river dolphins were shifted to the Kulsi with the confluence of the Dorabeel — a major wetland — and the river becoming a safe sanctuary for the mammal.

Environmentalists have questioned the permission granted by the MoEF, with Gauhati University professor MM Goswami saying that the question of survival of the highly-endangered river dolphin has been ignored. “The Kulsi river has been already earmarked as the last resort for the river dolphin in the Brahmaputra Valley. It was after a prolonged campaign by several groups that the government declared it as state aquatic animal in 2008. A year later it was also declared as the national aquatic animal.”

People of the area have set up a Brihattar Rampur Janaswartha Suraksha Samiti to resist establishment of the factory. “We are not anti-development. But what Rampur and its surrounding areas need is a programme for sustainable development,” said Debajit Choudhury, vice-president of the Brihattar Rampur Janaswartha Suraksha Samiti.

HK Gogoi, member-secretary of the Pollution Control Board, Assam said it was on the basis of a public hearing that the MoEF gave environmental clearance to the distillery. “We also forwarded the people's reservations to the MoEF twice in the past few months,” said Gogoi.