Environmental standard

An environmental standard is a policy guideline that regulates the effect of human activity upon the environment. Standards may specify a desired state (e.g. lake pH should be between 6.5 and 7.5) or limit alterations (e.g. no more than 50% of natural forest may be damaged). Environmental standards are a set of quality conditions that are adhered or maintained for a particular environmental component and function. The different environmental activities have different concerns and therefore different standards.

Environmental Standards

•National Ambient Air Quality Standards

•Water Quality Criteria

•Industry Specific Standards

•Effluent/Emission,

•General Standards

•Vehicular Exhaust

•Auto Fuel Quality

• Bio-Medical Incinerators

•Common HW incinerators

•Generator Set

•Noise Standards

Recently Notified Standards

1. Effluent and Emission Standards for Petroleum Oil Refineries

2. Emission Standards for Sulphuric Acid Plants

3. Emission Standards for Common Hazardous Waste Incinerators

4. Emission and Waste Water Standards for Incinerators of Pesticide Industries

Roadways Railways Airways and Waterways in Assam

Introduction:

Assam is very much under-developed in its transportation and communication and people still suffer from the lack of these facilities. Though the state govt. has given much emphasis to develop this sector in various Five Years Plans, it has not achieved the required growth yet in spite of its tremendous demand.

Road Transport

Road transport is the most important transport system in Assam and it bears the main responsibility of providing means of efficient transport facilities to the people of the state. Since the other transport systems like railways, airways etc. are not available in every corner of the state; the road is the only means of transportation of goods from one place to another.

Due to the physical condition of the state, the construction of road in Assam is a costly affair. Due to the heavy rainfall and flood the cost of constructing roads in Assam is very much expensive. On the other hand, because of the availability of too much rivers in the state, most of the fund is spent in construction of bridges, culverts etc.

In Assam, both public and private sector provide road transport services. The Assam State Transport Corporation was the govt. undertaking service provider. The private based transport agencies have been expanding day by day.

Assam is connected with 12 National Highways which are connecting all the important places of the state. Among them, the NH-37 is the longest.

Railway Transport

With the formation of Assam Railway and Trading Company in 1981, railway was introduced in India. Dr. John Berry White was the leader of Railway movement in Assam. The first railway line in Assam was Dibrugarh- Streamght to Jaipur- Road which was inaugurated in 1882.

Most important achievement in railway transport of the state took place since the Third Year plan. During that time railway bridge was constructed over the Brahmaputra.  Conversion of Meter Gauze lines into Broad Gauze and expansion of railway lines to different corners of the state were the most recognizable things during that time.

Now–a-day many passenger trains, inter-city trains run it the state. Apart from these the railway runs a number of inter-state trains linking Dibrugarh  and Guwahati with other important places of the country like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai etc. Thus the service of railway has a great importance in the economy of Assam. 

Waterways

Inland waterway is another important transport system in Assam. From the very beginning the inhabitants of Assam were conducting its trade with the neighboring states through the water transport. Understanding the difficulties of developing roads and railways, even the British authority in the early part of their rule, started to develop water transport in Assam. The East India Company started a streamer service in 1847.

Assam has a vast potential of inland water transport system. Out of the 13,500 kms. Of navigable waters in India, Assam commands over 4066 kms. This accounts for around one third of the total waterways. This unique position of state’s water transport is shared by the Brahmaputra and the Barak. There are also numerous tributaries of these two rivers.

Airways

There are six civil airports in the state, viz. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (Guwahati), Saloni (Tejpur), Rowriah (Zorhat), Mohanbari (Dibrugarh), Lilabari (Lakhimimpur) and Kumbhiragram (Silchar). Air India, Vayudoot and private commercial airlines such as Sahara, Jet Airways etc. have been operating air services in the state connecting the state with other parts of the world.

Though the air transport in Assam is not an improved one, yet it is functioning a vital role as the quickest mode of transport in Assam.

The Role of North Easatern Council in Economic Development

Introduction:
 In 1971, the Indian Central government set up the North Eastern Council by an act of parliament. The seven States of the North East India viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, are the members of the council, with their chief ministers and governors representing them. The headquarters of the council is situated in Shillong, and functions under Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (Government of India).

Contribution to the Electricity and Education sectors:
The council has to its credit a lot of achievements mostly in electricity and education sector. The council has funded projects producing around 250 MW of electricity to reduce the region's dependency on West Bengal and Odisha. The council has also taken up major highway and bridge building projects and fund many engineering and medical colleges.

NEC has a reckonable contribution in the power sector of the NE region by way of developing the basic infrastructure. The generating capacity of the region has increased considerably due to the addition of hydro-electricity projects (HEP) and a gas based project. In the power sector, it is seen that over the last three decades, NEC has sanctioned projects having total generating capacity of 673.5 MW. The installed capacity of the region increased from 211.99 MW in 1974 to 2202.19 MW in 2002 in which NEC’s share is 33.84% of the total capacity addition during this period. The Council has also intervened in streamlining of the power transmission system and the connection of the region to the national grid. This can be said to be an important development with greater impact on the power situation of the region. Besides, investigations carried out by NEC for the development of power and multipurpose projects can be regarded as stepping stone, which can go a long way in proper harnessing of water resources.                                     

Harnessing of hydroelectric potential is a major achievement of the Council, as out of a total installed capacity of 1030 MW of hydroelectric power NEC’s contribution is around 59.15%, which is 630 MW. It is observed that during the last 30 years of NEC’s intervention the commercial as well as domestic consumption of power has shown an upward trend in the Northeast due to availability of power. However, the time and cost overrun of all the major power projects is quite high, which has delayed the expected benefit. Most of the projects took exceptionally long period of time and huge amount of money due to various unforeseen cost, which were not reflected while taking up the project. Delay in disbursement of fund is also a cause for the time and cost overrun in case of power projects.       

                                                 

Transportation

Prior to establishment of NEC, the scenario of transport and communication was not at all impressive in the Northeast. The road development in the region has been very slow due to various geographical and socio-economic reasons. During the Five Year Plans, the allocated funds for development of the transport sector in the Northeast were not adequate in comparison to the need of the region. Inadequate transport facility was a serious drawback that crippled the development of the region for a long time. As a result of the partition, the region suffered not only economically in the form of relatively high prices of consumer goods and a high cost economy but also by a sense of isolation from the rest of the country. Moreover, the railway network was also inadequate and it was noticed that three-fourths of the total volume of goods traffic to and from the rest of the country were transported by the railways. The entire network east of New Bongaigaon was in meter gauge and the problems that were faced included not only insufficient railways network but also the hurdle caused by the change of gauge. The region also faced serious problems in transporting essential commodities like cement, steel, food grains, salt, etc. 
NEC has been involved in the development of roads and waterways since its inception. Due to demand and urgent need for improvement of air connectivity, the Council has taken up up-gradation and improvement of airports in addition to road and waterway transport, from the 8th Plan onwards, based on the recommendations of a Committee of Secretaries of the Government of India         

Watershed Management ad Deforestation Problem in Assam

What is Watershed?

Watershed is an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.

A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place.

What is Watershed Management?

According to Wikipedia, Watershed management is the study of the relevant characteristics of a watershed aimed at the sustainable distribution of its resources and the process of creating and implementing plans, programs, and projects to sustain and enhance watershed functions that affect the plant, animal, and human communities within a watershed boundary.

Problems faced by Watershed in Assam

Due to the human activities such as deforestation, too much grazing, too much fishing, mining etc. the watersheds in Assam have been facing serious problem.  Since these watersheds function as the container of a good ecosystem and an organized biodiversity, the problem of the watershed implies a tremendous degradation of nature of Assam

Watershed management in Assam

The integrated watershed management programme launched by Department of Land Resources (DoLR) Government of India, has sanctioned nine integrated watershed management projects under Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas comprising the districts of Baska, Udalguri, Chirang and Kokrajhar on the basis of preliminary project report submitted under the guidance of executive member, BTC, Soil Conservation Department, to State level nodal agency, i.e. Department of Soil Conservation, Government of Assam.

HOWEVER, we have not noticed any effective work done by the authority in order to conserve the watershed in Assam yet.

Deforestation in Assam.

Deforestation has become one of the most serious environmental problems of Assam. Assam is situated in one of the two mega biodiversity hot spots in India. Therefore, the deforestation in this area implies a serious threat to the environment.

Causes of Deforestation

1.       Like all other states, the population of Assam is growing at a very higher rate. Therefore many people are attempting to cut woods in order to avail place for their habitat.

2.       Most of the people use the trees as a source of firewood.

3.       The development project such as mining, setting up an industry, constructing roads etc. are rising in the state. These activities are responsible for deforestation.

4.       Illegal immigrants are occupying the forest area of the state. They are cutting wood for cultivation and other necessity.

Problems caused by Deforestation

Deforestation is causing serious problems like these

1.       The climate in the state is changing rapidly. The cultivators of Assam are in great inconvenience due to the lack of sufficient rainfall.

2.       The biodiversity of Assam is declining day by day.

3.       Land slide and flood are two major results of deforestations in the state.

Measures to control

There are many rules and regulations enacted against deforestation but their implementation is very much insignificant in Assam. The govt. has announced many forests in the state as National Parks and reserved forests but the security of wildlife in these areas too is not of satisfaction. Illegal woodcutters are cutting several hundreds of trees in these so called reserved forests. Therefore the govt. must be very strict in this aspect in order to tackle the problem of deforestation in the state. Unless the public awareness, the govt. too cannot control deforestation. The public should be conscious against deforestation. In school syllabus, the importance of wood and the evil effects of deforestation should be included.

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