Guwahati: Assam has proposed an eco-sensitive zone extending up to one to three kilometres from Kaziranga National Park’s boundary, replacing the default 10km limit.State govt said the proposal complied with Supreme Court directives and would not alter the boundaries of the Unesco World Heritage Site, famed for its one-horned rhinoceroses.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on ‘X’, “The park boundary remains unchanged.”“Govt move is well within the Supreme Court’s directives of notifying the eco-sensitive zone up to one to three km, which is measured not from the core area of the park but from its boundary,” he said.Govt said the existing 10km zone restricted indigenous communities from building houses. Its proposal seeks to accommodate housing and healthcare facilities within the regulatory framework, balancing conservation with local development.Sarma warned that uniformly applying a 10km ESZ around Kaziranga would have far-reaching consequences.“Local people have to run businesses to survive. Even the Numaligarh Refinery will have to be closed down if the 10 km area around Kaziranga is notified as ECZ,” he added.“If people living around Kaziranga are displaced, who will protect Kaziranga?” Sarma said, adding that residents have long sought livelihood and business opportunities, including GI-tagged products, alongside conservation.He said Kaziranga extended beyond Kohora range towards Biswanath Ghat. A 10km zone from the park boundary could, therefore, affect areas towards Gohpur and Biswanath Chariali.The proposal, recently sent to Centre, has drawn criticism from the opposition and others who fear it could damage the ecosystem.The former Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve field director Jatindra Sarma said an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) was essentially a buffer around a protected area.Eco-sensitive zones need not extend uniformly for 10km around protected areas, the retired IFS officer said.“Once an ESZ is defined, development activities can take place subject to the prescribed regulations. If it is 10 km uniformly, where will development take place in areas such as Tezpur? People living around the park also want a reduction in the extent of the ESZ,” he said.Sarma called for a pragmatic approach balancing conservation and human needs. “We have to be pragmatic. Man and animal have to coexist. Kaziranga is alive, and people are cooperating,” he said.The extent of ESZs varies according to local conditions. Around Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, which borders the Narengi Army Cantonment in Guwahati, the notified ESZ ranges from 170 metres to 8.1km from the sanctuary boundary.Similarly, the ESZ around Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary ranges from zero kilometres along the interstate boundary with Nagaland to 22.54km around other parts of the sanctuary.Congress workers led by state party president and Lok Sabha deputy leader of opposition Gaurav Gogoi protested at Kohora range, demanding the proposal’s withdrawal.“Rampant illegal coal, stone and sand mining patronised by the ruling dispensation has triggered catastrophic floods across upper Assam, destroying over 4,000 houses and claiming more than 100 lives,” Gogoi alleged. He claimed deforestation and hill mining had driven tigers and elephants into human settlements, worsening human-animal conflict.Sarma accused Gogoi of politicising the issue and said opposition should be based on an assessment of the ESZ’s likely impact rather than rhetoric.Commercial activities in an ESZ are prohibited, regulated or permitted depending on their nature and prescribed norms.
