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NONGSTOIN, AUG 26: An Assam Police vehicle was gutted in a fire in the remote Langpih area along the disputed Assam-Meghalaya border on Wednesday, police said. The vehicle, bearing registration number AS-01-DH-7347, belongs to Assam Police personnel posted at the Mawsikar Assam Police Camp. The vehicle was parked by the roadside near Mawsikar village, a few metres from the Assam Police camp, when it caught fire around 4 am, police said. The incident was reported to the Langpih Border Outpost in Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills district by the Mawsikar village headman. Police questioned the village headman, secretary and several locals as part of the preliminary inquiry. Although arson is suspected, police said the exact cause of the fire has not yet been established. An inspection of the site did not yield any material or evidence that could confirm that the vehicle had been deliberately set ablaze. Both Assam and Meghalaya police were also probing the incident. (Source: PTI)    

IMPHAL, AUG 26: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Manipur in the first week of October, during which he will lay the foundation stone for a medical college and oversee other developmental projects, according to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. During a meeting with Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday, Shah also said that the central government will fulfil the wishes of the people of the state. “Amit Shah will also visit the state in the first week of October this year. During his visit, the Union home minister will lay the foundation stone of Senapati Medical College and oversee other developmental projects of the state,” the Chief Minister’s Secretariat said in a statement. The state cabinet recently decided to set up a medical college in Senapati district, predominantly inhabited by the Naga community. Shah also gave a patient hearing to all the issues related to the state raised by Singh, the statement said. “The Union home minister then informed the Manipur chief minister that the central government will fulfil the aspirations of the people of Manipur,” it said. Shah also lauded the state government for its success in resuming the Imphal-Dimapur-Guwahati bus service and ensuring free movement on the National Highway 2. The bus service and free movement of traffic along the national highways had been affected intermittently due to blockades imposed by various ethnic groups to press for their demands. At least 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless since May 2023 due to ethnic violence between the valley-based Meiteis and the Kukis who live in the hill districts of Manipur. Following continued ethic clashes and the resignation of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the state was placed under President’s Rule on February 13, 2025. It was lifted nearly a year later, on February 4, and Y Khemchand Singh became the CM. (Source: PTI)  

GUWAHATI, AUG 26: Altogether 165 butterfly species, including 37 endangered ones, have been recorded in Assam’s Dehing Patkai National Park, highlighting the rich biodiversity of the rainforest, officials said on Wednesday. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has highlighted the finding as another remarkable example of the state’s rich natural heritage, with Dehing Patkai emerging as a thriving haven for butterfly diversity, Forest and Climate Change Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah said in a post on X. “A total of 165 butterfly species have been recorded in the region, including 37 endangered species, underlining the immense ecological importance of this biodiversity-rich landscape,” Baruah said. The presence of such a diverse butterfly population reflects the importance of protecting healthy and connected natural habitats, he added. “More than just a national park, Dehing Patkai is a thriving ecosystem where forests, wildlife and countless smaller species coexist,” the minister said. Conservation efforts are helping create safer conditions for rare and endangered species to survive and flourish, strengthening Assam’s larger mission of protecting its biodiversity, he added. “From majestic elephants and tigers to the smallest and most colourful butterflies, Assam’s forests continue to prove that every species has a role in keeping nature alive,” Baruah said. The Dehing Patkai National Park, with an area of 234.26 sq km, is located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts, and is famous for Assam Valley Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests bordering Arunachal Pradesh. The Park is a part of the 937 sq km large Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve, having the World War-II cemeteries nearby along with the Stilwell Road, the oldest refinery of Asia in Digboi and an ‘open cast’ coal mine at Lido. The national park is home to the Chinese pangolin, flying fox, slow loris, stump-tailed macaque, Assamese macaque, capped langur, hoolock gibbon, Himalayan black bear, Hog–badger, jungle cat, leopard cat, clouded leopard, leopard, tiger, sambar, barking deer, gaur and Malayan giant squirrels. Various types of bird species along with several other reptiles are also found in the Dehing Patkai forest. (Source: PTI)  

GUWAHATI, AUG 26: The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday admitted a PIL filed by senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia against the state government, alleging negligence led to the devastating floods in several Upper Assam districts in July. Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar heard the petitioner’s counsel KN Chowdhury and directed all listed parties to file their replies by November 3. The floods in Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat districts claimed 105 lives, displaced lakhs of people and destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of families, according to the petition. Saikia alleged that the floods were not a natural calamity but a “man-made disaster”. “I had been warning the government and the authorities since 2018. I had earlier approached the Gauhati High Court twice, and it had issued clear directions in 2019 and again in 2022 to stop illegal mining in the Dikhow riverbed and to constitute a Task Force Battalion,” Saikia said. “The government simply ignored those orders. Even the official report of the Water Resources Department dated January 12, 2022, clearly predicted that continued illegal excavation would change the river’s course and cause devastation, which has now come true in the most tragic manner,” he said. The petitioner said he had filed two PILs in 2018 and 2019 before the high court, highlighting alleged rampant and unscientific mining of sand and stone from the Dikhow riverbed, particularly in the Assam-Nagaland border areas. The HC had directed the state to stop illegal mining and form a dedicated Mines and Minerals Task Force Battalion, he said. In 2022, the court again reiterated its directions, but the BJP-led state government did nothing, he alleged. “The government protected the mining mafia instead of protecting the people of Upper Assam. Night-time mining continued with impunity. I submitted repeated representations to the Deputy Commissioner, the Superintendent of Police, the Chief Secretary and even to the Chief Justice but no action was taken,” Saikia said. Saikia also alleged that illegal open-cast coal mining in Nagaland’s Mon, Mokokchung and Wokha districts and the sudden release of water from the Doyang Hydro Electric Project without proper coordination further aggravated the situation. The natural protective features of the river, including sand and gravel bars that once helped moderate floodwaters, were systematically destroyed by years of illegal mining, he alleged. The petition sought an immediate and permanent halt to illegal riverbed mining in the Dikhow and its tributaries and full implementation of the HC’s 2019 and 2022 orders, including the creation of the Task Force Battalion. It also sought the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee headed by a retired judge, scientific assessment of the role of illegal mining and dam releases in the floods; full restorative compensation to the victims beyond the token ex gratia; registration of FIRs against those responsible for illegal mining and official negligence; and a real-time coordinated protocol for upstream dam releases to protect downstream communities in Assam. Demanding accountability, Saikia said the state government must answer why it ignored judicial orders for eight years. After hearing the matter, the Chief Justice verbally acknowledged that the petitioner had raised the concerns earlier and observed that the government must explain why floods could not be prevented, as they should not become an annual cause of misery for the people of Assam. PTI