Yes, our Government is giving clearance to disaster in the name of Development!
I hope most of you have seen the picture or video of the massive fire that erupted at a leaking natural gas well in Baghjan oil field in Assam.
The magnitude of fire is so high that you can even spot the fire in Satellite Image. Two Oil India Limited (OIL) employees and five villagers have died due to this incident. OIL, a Government of India Navaratna Enterprise, is currently engaged in carrying out exploration activities for hydrocarbon in this landscape.
The location of the fire is in close vicinity of Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.
“Dibru-Saikhowa, with an area of 340 sq km, is among the most vibrant wildness on earth and is also distinct for its pristine scenic beauty… Dibru-Saikhowa is a safe haven for many extremely rare and endangered species of Wildlife.”
Yes, that’s what has been claimed in the official website of Kaziranga National Park.
Exotic species such as clouded leopard, rhesus macaque, slow loris, Royal Bengal tiger, Gangetic dolphin, hoolock gibbon, capped langur, spot-billed pelican, whistling teal, magpie, greater spotted eagle, crested serpent eagle, greater adjutant stork and common pintail are present in that landscape. The park is also famous for its small population of about 70 feral horses which are the fifth and sixth generation of horses that escaped from army camps during World War II.
The process of destroying this ‘safe haven‘ for wildlife started back in 2003. The Baghjan oil field is distributed beneath Dangori River and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, and it is constantly pushing the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and Assam State Government for giving clearance for oil exploration. Clearance also has been provided for a few locations already, within which this accident has taken place.
Yes, it’s true that oil resource is extremely precious for India as we expend a huge amount of public money for importing oil, but that doesn’t imply that we should destroy all our biodiversity-rich areas to extract the last drop of oil from the reserve.
India is supposed to move towards renewable energy instead of depending on extremely polluting coal and oil resources. A lot of public money goes to our neta‘s pocket every year. Oil is still importable with extra money (though, I am not suggesting so), but it’s impossible to import out lost wildlife or our lost pristine environment by any means.
“Mera Bharat Mahan hai”, dude! We are not like China.