The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has temporarily halted an order that would have deployed around 1,600 personnel from the Assam Forest Protection Force for the upcoming April 9 Assembly elections in Assam. The Assam government planned to mobilize these forest guards to assist the police during the elections. However, the NGT's eastern zonal bench in Kolkata, led by judicial member Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Ishwar Singh, expressed concerns that diverting these personnel from their primary responsibilities of protecting and conserving biological resources would violate the Biological Diversity Act. The tribunal highlighted that such a large-scale diversion could leave Assam's ecologically sensitive areas, including tiger reserves and protected regions, vulnerable to illegal activities like poaching and timber felling. The NGT issued notices to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Assam state government, and other relevant bodies, emphasizing the need for urgent conservation efforts. The tribunal has scheduled a hearing for responses and submissions on April 6.