Itanagar: The civil secretariat and the state legislative assembly — the power centres of Arunachal Pradesh — were allegedly constructed without obtaining mandatory environmental clearances, despite being located within the legally notified boundaries of the Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary (IWS), according to official records accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Legislative Assembly building at Itanagar (arunachalplan.gov.in) The revelation emerged in response to an RTI filed by environmental activist and advocate S Loda, which sought details from 1978 to the present regarding the legal status, biodiversity, construction activities, and ecological impacts within IWS. The reply from the office of the Deputy Chief Wildlife Warden, Naharlagun, confirmed that neither the state secretariat nor the assembly complex received clearance, as required under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The RTI response further states that no construction permission or environmental clearance has been issued for any building within the sanctuary boundaries from 1980 to now—a period that covers all major administrative infrastructure expansion in the Itanagar Capital Region. The Itanagar Wildlife Sanctuary was formally notified on February 20, …