Protectionist Movement in Assam: Nature's Beckon's Approach To
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International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 3, March 2020, pp. 678-685, Article ID: IJM_11_03_069 Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=3 ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 DOI: 10.34218/IJM.11.3.2020.069 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed PROTECTIONIST MOVEMENT IN ASSAM: NATURE’S BECKON’S APPROACH TO ‘APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY’ AND STATE’S RESPONSE Sun Gogoi M.A., M. Phil, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Dibrugarh University, Assam, India ABSTRACT The study of ecological movements has gained ground in academia in the recent past. In developing countries ecological crisis has its own unique features. Unlike the developed countries of Europe and America, in case of the developing countries like India, the goals of economic development are closely connected with the highly revered project of ‘nation-building.’ The developing countries’ relentless effort to promote this project with modernisation, industrialisation and homogenization has generated a series of ecological problems in various parts of the world. Ecological degradation has had adverse impact more on the developing countries than those on the advanced ones. Nature’s Beckon, a green non-governmental organisation (NGO) of Assam has been doing some tremendous jobs for forest and wildlife conservation from the 1980s till date. As a pioneer of New Social Movement (NSM) in the region, the NGO has been playing an inspiring role in growing eco-consciousness among the indigenous people and building public opinion in this regard among both the national and international societies. Nature’s Beckon has been experiencing a series of cooperation and confrontation with the state policies in its conservationist movement. Keywords: Assam, Confrontation, Conservation, Developing countries, Nature’s Beckon, New Social Movement, Non-governmental organisation Cite this Article: Sun Gogoi, Protectionist Movement in Assam: Nature’s Beckon’s Approach To ‘Appropriate Technology’ And State’s Response, International Journal of Management, 11(3), 2020, pp. 678-685. http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=3 1. INTRODUCTION By the end of the last century, large tracts of forest land across Assam had been converted to anthropocentric land-use forms. Under such circumstances, a number of green NGOs have come into existence in the state over the recent decades. Among them, Nature’s Beckon is a pioneering one, being active in addressing the ecological issues of the Northeast since its http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 678 [email protected] Protectionist Movement in Assam: Nature’s Beckon’s Approach to ‘Appropriate Technology’ and State’s Response inception in 1982. Its founder director is Soumyadeep Datta, who is an Ashoka Fellow. The NGO was registered under the Registrar of Societies Act, India in 1991 with its head office seated at Dhubri. For the first time in the environmental history of Assam, Nature’s Beckon initiated a state-wide ecological consciousness building programme named the Brahmaputra Barak Valley Natural Environmental Awareness Campaign (1988). The organization is intensely involved in green activism ranging from the conservation of wildlife and their habitats in the sanctuaries, proper maintenance of the national parks and other forests areas of Assam, to the building of awareness among the local communities and common masses. Relentless efforts of this NGO in the late 1980s and early 1990s influenced the government to covert Chakrashila Reserve Forest (recognized in 1966) into the Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary in 1994. Following this success, Nature’s beckon came up with another demand for the protection of contiguous rainforests concentrated in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, the easternmost districts of Assam. The NGO has been staunch enough in its ecological concerns about adversarial outcomes of the expansion of industrial and other anthropocentric projects in and around the rainforest areas, as well as against the prevailing nexus between the competent authority and the anti-social interest groups. In this movement, the organization has been experiencing a variety of responses from the state machinery ranging from scepticism to apathy, and then partial responses in certain fields. Over the 20th century, the area covered by rainforests was shrinking around the globe, and still the process is going on mainly due to anthropocentric activities. These forests have been subjected to heavy legal and illegal logging and agricultural clearance. The issue of protecting rainforests gained international attention in the summer and the fall of 2019, as thousands of wildfires accelerated deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which is the largest of its kind in the world. The rainforests deposit precious metals and fossil fuel (oil and natural gas). These resources are vital for the developing countries of the world to promote economic growth. Several tribes or indigenous groups belonging to Central America, Central Africa and South-East Asia have been traditionally dependent on the food resources of rainforests. In Northeast India too, several ethnic communities and tribes have had close material and cultural connections with the neighbouring jungles which are on the verge of a decline. This article attempts to explore the various dimensions of the ecological activism initiated by the Nature’s Beckon with special focus on its movement for forest and wildlife conservation in Assam. The activities of this NGO correspond to the Appropriate Technology (AT) Approach to environmental protection. It can be defined as a technology that is designed to be appropriate to the ‘context’ of its use. It can be defined as a sustainable technology requiring fewer natural resources and producing less environmental pollution or degradation. Such technologies can be treated as an alternative to the mainstream modern technology, which are often wasteful and environmentally polluting. In this connection, the appropriate ‘context’ for implementing appropriate technology may include the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political and economic aspects of a particular territory. 2. GREEN ACTIVISM AND ‘NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT’ IN ASSAM As per the ‘India State of Forest Report 2019,’ the total forest cover of Assamese is 36.11 % (28,327 square kilometers) of the total geographical area (78,438 square kilometers) of the state. The report shows that Assam has witnessed an increase in its forest cover by 222 square kilometers in the last two years. Interestingly, as per the report, apart from Assam and Tripura, all other Northeastern states have showed a decline in forest cover. The government authorities said that the major reason behind this development in Assam has been the aforestation efforts http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 679 [email protected] Sun Gogoi and free distribution of the seedling to the public over the past few years. Though one may not exclusively hail the green NGOs of the state for this increase, it must be accepted that the process of interaction and confrontation between these NGOs and the government policy makers has triggered a new trend of conservationist social movement in the region. The early 1980s, when Nature’s Beckon came into existence, was a very turbulent period in the socio-political history of Assam as the legendary Anti-Foreigner Struggle of Assam (1979-85), popularly known as Asom Andolan, was at its zenith. The state has been witnessing protracted rivalries and violent clashes between different communities and ethnic groups since 1983. That year the armed clash between the Assamese speaking indigenous groups and the Bengali speaking Muslims at Nellie ended with the massacre of the latter, where more 2,000 people lost their lives. In the post-Assam Accord (1985) period, rapidly growing ethno- nationalist mobilizations in the state culminated in armed clashes between the Bodos and Adivasis (1993, 1996, 2014), Bodos and immigrant Muslims (1993, 2008, 2012, 2013), Karbi and Kuki (2004), Dimasa and Karbi (2005), Dimasa and Zeme (2009), Garo and Rabha (2010), followed by several other events of confrontation. Keeping in view several unhealthy dimensions of the social and political mobilizations in Assam over the 1980s and 1990s, Homen Borgohain, a renowned Assamese writer and journalist, in the closing ceremony of the Rainforest Festival of Assam (November 21, 2001), opined that “In the last two decades, Assam witnessed several unlawful activities which posed obstacles in the path of development of the state However, in the meantime the movement for conservation of nature brought in a new outlook for the wellbeing of human race. For the last twenty years, therefore, this movement can be regarded as the greatest movement” (Datta 2012). This first ever rainforest festival of Northeast India was organized by Nature’s Beckon from 17-21 November, 2001 in Joypur (Dibrugarh District) on the outskirts of its rainforests that spills over to Arunachal Pradesh. The NGO saw its great success in involving people at the grassroots level as well as those at the highest strata of policy making bodies (including Tarun Gogoi, the erstwhile Chief Minister of Assam) in the event. Ashoka India, the collaborative network of ‘Ashoka’ (which today is the world’s largest network of leading social entrepreneurs), supported and then recognized the event as a great achievement. The primary objectives of this festival were recognized as follows: a) To introduce the vulnerable status of the rainforests of the Northeast region especially Assam in the both