Filling up of waterbodies and wetlands around Guwahati and other cities/ urban areas has caused immense damage to roads and households apart from Disruption of communication. Increasing value of urban and even prime location village lands created pressure on wetlands and waterbodies. Most of the state have no wetland policy to preserve the environment.
The vast wetland that stretches from Panikhaity, Chandrapur to Pobitora Wildlife sanctuary is the key part of the ecology surrounding the two wildlife sanctuaries- Pobitora and Amchang. Amchang wildlife sanctuary which is attached to the fringe of the city is already facing encroachment and now it has reached a stage where eviction of families settled for long years inside the sanctuary are almost impossible.
Since this stretch of area is near Guwahati city and the city is expanding faster the pressure on the land is increasing day by day. Both the sides of the Narengi Morigaon road are low lying area as the bank of Brahmaputra covers one side and the wetland on the other. Most of the lands bothside the roads are owned by tribal farmers who are living in the areas for long periods. The state government settled Bangladeshi refugees migrated to Assam during Bangladesh war in 1971 mostly Hindus in some of the nearby areas.
Now rich urban people have bought lands from tribal and other local people and have started building infrastructure for home, private schools, hospitals, brick kiln, resorts and even industries by filling up the wetlands. Hemen Das the then deputy commissioner of Morigaon district said to this correspondent once while replying to our query why the government has not taken steps to preserve the wetland, that since the wetland is not declared as wetland by the government the district administration cannot take action against filling up of wetlands. It it to be noted that the almost half of the area on the stretch falls under Kamrup Metro and the rest falls in Morigaon district. Although most of the lands are agricultural land both the district administration have allowed setting up of some industrial units, like brick kiln tyre retreading , RCC block, roofing manufacturing, printing binding press and publishers, wine bottling plants etc there. Even some people have constructed big multistoried buildings near the bank of Brahmaputra. Why the authorities have given permission of construction to these buildings is not understandable.
Contraction of wetland surrounding both the wildlife sanctuaries will pose as a great threat to these biosphere. Moreover nearby villages and habitats will be inundated in near future if the land filling spree continues here.
