Wild jumbo demolishes security barricade ahead of PM’s visit to bio-ethanol plant in Golaghat

Dibrugarh: Just days before PM Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to inaugurate a groundbreaking bio-ethanol plant at Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) in Golaghat, a wild elephant on Saturday evening demolished a bamboo security barricade along the route, sending the security forces into an overdrive.Emerging from a nearby forest, the elephant first broke through the bamboo structure, crushing it with its leg, before crossing the road and disappearing back into the forest. The barricade, which had been installed for security purposes, was placed adjacent to the Letekujan tea estate boundary.“The elephant came out suddenly from the forest area and demolished the barricade with its powerful trunk and legs, before disappearing into the forest.

Later, the workers arrived and repaired the barricade,” a local resident said.Golaghat additional SP (headquarters) Bivas Das said the authorities responded with alacrity to the situation. “The matter was promptly attended to. The barricade was repaired immediately. It was a small portion of the barricade. A stray elephant had ventured out of the forest,” Das said.PM Modi will formally inaugurate NRL’s pioneering bamboo-based bio-ethanol facility, a Rs 4,200 crore project, representing a major technological breakthrough for India’s renewable energy sector.

The state-of-the-art facility, developed by Assam Bio Ethanol Pvt Ltd (ABEPL), a joint venture spearheaded by NRL, has already achieved a significant milestone by successfully producing 99.7% purified ethanol, a significant advancement in second-generation (2G) ethanol production. It is the first facility in the country to use bamboo biomass as its primary feedstock, processing 300,000 tons annually to produce approximately 50,000 tons of fuel-grade ethanol.