GUWAHATI: After Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) asked the Assam government not to implement the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) in Assam alleging the possibility of water scarcity due to oil palm cultivation and probable attempts of land grabbing in hills in the name of cultivation.
Under the NMEO-OP, the Assam government has planned to allot 3.75 lakh hectares of land to four big companies in 18 districts for palm oil cultivation.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has formally inaugurated palm oil cultivation in an area of 20,000 hectares of land at Saikhowa in Upper Assaam’s Tinsukia district to be carried out by Baba Ramadev’s Patanjali Foods Limited, formerly known as Ruchi Soya Industries Limited.
“It is a matter of concern. Indonesia, the largest producer (80%) of palm oil is facing ill effects when they even use the peatlands. Peatlands are the largest carbon sink which can absorb 80 bn tons of carbon (5% of world generated carbon).In the context of present climate change these aspects have been completely ignored,” Assam TMC president Ripun Bora said.
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“The chief minister said Assam’s natural rainfall itself will compensate, whereas we have seen how much rainfall is decreasing in Assam in the current climatic condition. The effect of groundwater depletion has tilted the earth’s axis itself whereby both the poles of the earth are already getting pushed by 3 metres, the effect we are going to face. This person is not at all convincible even by the environmentalists. Only money matters,” Bora added.
Echoing a similar opinion, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Assam president Dr Bhaben Choudhury expressed concern over the negative impact of palm cultivation on the environment and stated that, when palm cultivation has been banned in countries like Indonesia, European countries and others for environmental impact; under what compulsion has the Central government takes this initiative to introduce it in the northeastern region along with Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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Quoting scientific studies published in recent times on the subject, Dr Choudhury said that a palm oil tree needs 300 litres of water per day. “This tree syphons off groundwater and makes the surrounding soil infertile for other forms of cultivation. This would cause serious drought-like conditions in the future depleting the water table further,” Dr Chouhdury said.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party still has a colonial attitude towards the northeastern region and is this why they chose the environment destroyer palm to be cultivated in this region,” he asked.
“Why is it that palm cultivation has not been initiated in other states of India and what kind of research has the BJP government taken on the subject before initiating its plantation in the Northeast,” he said and demanded to make any such research/report undertaken by the government to be made public.