Tripura tribals threaten stir against wildlife sanctuary

AGARTALA: The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), which has a huge tribal support base, threatened to launch a state-wide agitation on Monday against the Left Front government’s initiative to create a wildlife sanctuary, saying it would lead to displacement of thousands of tribals.

“More than 1,00,000 tribals would be displaced from three sub-divisions, including Amarpur in South Tripura district and Ambassa and Gandacherra in Dhalai
district if the sanctuary comes up,” Rabindra Debbarma, general secretary of INPT, said.

Claiming that the tribals were displaced from their ancestral lands when the Dambur hydel project was constructed in South District in the seventies, Debbarma said the state government had already issued notices to the tribal people to submit details of their lands to the officials concerned.

The tribals were earlier evicted from Atharamura, Kalazhari and Bhagaban Tilla hill
ranges.

Tripura forest minister Jitendra Chowdhury, however, denied any move to create a new wildlife sanctuary in the state and said, “We are planning to create a ‘critical habitat area’ for elephants and few other animals facing extinction in southern and northern Tripura.” He said the move was part of an ambitious programme to preserve the state’s fauna.

“The latest census has shown that the population of wild jumbos has gone up from 38 in 2002 to 59 now,” Chowdhury added.