Assam Government is contemplating to lodge an FIR against the proposed mega food park in Assam’s Sonitpur district to be set up by the Patanjal Trust of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, Assam forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said this on Thursday.
The Minister’s statement came after a female elephant died at the under construction mega food park of the Patanjali Trust at Ghoramari near Tezpur in northern Assam’s Sonitpur district on Wednesday. The female elephant fell in a ditch in the under construction site with its three-month-old calf on Wednesday.
While the forest department officials and the local people could manage to rescue the elephant calf after several hours of struggle, the female elephant died before it could be rescued. locals agitated against the death of the elephant on Thursday.
“I am saddened by the death of the elephant. That is the reason I have come here to see the elephant. We are going to file an FIR over the incident and we are going to name the Patanjali Trust in the FIR,” said the Minister while visiting the place of occurrence on Thursday.
It is only less than a month when Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation stone of the mega food park at Ghoramari in Sonitpur district earlier this month. The Patanjali Trust said that they are going to invest Rs1,200 crore in the project which would give direct employment to over 5,000 youth and benefit over 50,000 farmers in and around the proposed park.
It may be mentioned here that Assam government had given 150 acres of land to the Trust for setting up the mega project, the first big investment in the state after the BJP led alliance government assumed charged in the state. locals said that the land given to the Trust for setting up the mega food park is located close to the Nameri wildlife sanctuary and elephants herds frequents the area sometimes.
Meanwhile, the forest officials informed that the rescued calf was sent to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation located near the Kaziranga National Park and that efforts are on to de-stress the female calf.