Growing Industrial Activities and Emerging Issues in Sonapur-Byrnihat Area of Assam and Meghalaya

Abstract

Industrial development is one of the most important indicators for economic development of any region. North East India is traditionally occupies a poor position in respect of industrial development. But since the last few decades industrialization has taken the pace at a rapid rate in few pocket regions in this part of the country. But the nature and development of few industries are not considered to be the best due to its adverse effects particularly in the state of Assam.  Assam has a storehouse of many industries having different capacity, nature and areal extension. But due the unsustainable growth of industries like brick, coke, cement etc., and their socio-economic and environmental consequences put many questions on their existence.  The situation in this respect in the Sonapur-Byrnihat area of Kamrup (Metro) district of Assam is seen to be more discouraging, where a total number of 15 brick and 18 coke industries have been functioning by taking the economic advantage the nearby Guwahati city, which is the single metropolitan city of the entire north-eastern region of the country with population crossing one million. In order to meet the fast increasing high demand of brick and coke in the Guwahati city, these industries have started violating the environmental, industrial and socio-economic ethics and laws. The brick kiln areas, which are mostly located in the agricultural fields, have been expanding day by day by consuming fertile agricultural land. On the other hand, the coke industries developed in the foothills of Assam-Meghalaya border have also been growing fast by consuming the forest land. Such an environmentally unsustainable growth of these industries has adverse impacts on the nearby areas in the form of emission of pollutants, shrinking agricultural and forest land, reduction of crop production, wetland shrinkage, biodiversity loss, poisoning of river water, changing human occupation, etc. With this backdrop, an attempt is made in this paper to explore the nature of growth of brick and coke industries along with other allied commercial activities, and to assess their present status and environmental and socio-economic impacts in the area by using field-based primary data in conjunction with geospatial tools and technology.