Assam Environment and Forest Minister Jayant Mallabarua on Sunday stressed the need to increase revenue collection and close revenue evasion in the forest department. Criticizing the minister’s statement, environmentalists and nature lovers said that the main responsibility of the forest department is to conserve forests and wildlife., Revenue is not collected.
He told reporters, “I don’t want to burden the people with taxes.” Funding under it, Forest and Mines Department is a revenue generating department. Referring to allegations of revenue collection errors in the forest department, the minister said his main objective is to close these revenue holes and ensure 100 percent revenue collection in the department.
Journalist and environmentalist Apoorva Vallabh Goswami reacted strongly after the minister’s comments. He said the government should pay more attention to tree plantation and forest conservation in view of increasing environmental challenges like global warming. “It is alarming that a forest minister is talking about such revenue collection. He said if the government focuses on increasing revenue, there will be massive destruction of forest resources.”‘b. He said the government should comply with the Supreme Court’s 1996 ban on felling trees in the northeast. Goswami clarified that without forests there would be no wildlife and conservation of forest resources and wildlife is the prime responsibility of the forest department.
Another environmentalist Dilip Nath also termed the minister’s comments as unfortunate. He said, the reserve is a forest, Protecting sanctuaries and national parks, The main objective of the Forest Department is to clear encroachment from forest land and to plant trees in degraded forest areas. He said that the forest minister is deviating from the main objective of the department and is only targeting revenue collection. Referring to a 1996 Supreme Court observation, Nath said the country’s forest cover was limited to only 11 percent against the required 19 percent., The court imposed a ban on felling of trees across the North East.
Environmentalist Nath feared that if the government tried to raise revenue from the forest department, the state’s forest resources would be severely damaged.‘b. He requested the Prime Minister’s urgent intervention in this regard. Currently, the forest minister’s comments and arguments raised by environmentalists in response have sparked an important public debate on the state’s forest resource conservation and government’s revenue collection policies., The government’s next steps remain to be seen‘b.
