NGT seeks report on frequent landslides in North Bengal hills

Kolkata: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a report from both the Union and the West Bengal governments over the frequent landslides in the hills in North Bengal, which throw normal life totally out of gear there from time to time, round the year.

A detailed hearing in the matter will be conducted at NGT’s eastern zonal branch in Kolkata on December 22, and by that time, the Union and state governments will have to submit their respective reports in the matter to the tribunal.

The state and Central agencies from whom reports have been sought by NGT include the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, National Disaster Management Authority, West Bengal Pollution Control Board, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.

The decision of the tribunal comes amid massive rainfall and landslides devastating the hills, Terai, and Dooars regions in North Bengal earlier this month which took several lives.

The tribunal has taken suo motu cognisance of different media reports that massive deforestation and unbridled real estate developments in the hills are the major reasons for the landslide-related disasters in the North Bengal hills.

The NGT had also observed the importance of the North Bengal hills in the perspective of national security and stressed on corrective measures on an emergency basis to prevent such disasters.

The Union government data suggests the possibility of the West Bengal government ignoring cautions in Central reports on the rapid reduction in forest areas since 2011 in the hills of the Darjeeling district.

From the biennial India State of Forest Report (ISFR) for 2023, the latest available, it is clear that although a caution on the fast decline in forest areas in the Darjeeling district was there, the state government either overlooked or neglected those cautions.

The ISFR report is prepared and published every two years by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) headquartered at Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

As per the ISFR for 2023, the total forest area in the Darjeeling district then was 1,402.67 square kilometres, as against 2,289 square kilometres in 2011, which were the last year of the previous Left Front government and the beginning year of the Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal.

This means that there had been a 31 per cent decline in the forest area in the Darjeeling district since 2011 till the last year of review.