10 years on, encroachments persist in Kaziranga despite HC eviction orders

Guwahati, Oct 21: Repeated directives from the Gauhati High Court since the last ten years, ordering time-bound action by the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) authorities in coordination with the civil administration to clear the KNP additions of encroachment have failed to yield the desired results so far.

The High Court had passed its order dated 09-10-2015 in PIL (Suo Motu) No. 66/2012, PIL No. 67/2012, WP(C) No. 4860/2013 and WP(C) No. 648/2013. Subsequently, the Office of the High Court Registrar has repeatedly been asking for action-taken reports from the KNP authorities in that regard.

While settlements within the Second addition of the park are yet to be fully cleared, possession of the cleared forestland along some stretches is yet to be handed over to the park authorities by the district administration.

Official sources told The Assam Tribune that aside from the handing over of cleared land, issues regarding claim settlement of some settlers on the Second addition were still pending.

“Some people with land ownership are still residing on the Second addition. The claim settlement process is on with the Golaghat district administration, and once that is done, the land will be handed over to the park authorities,” the sources said, adding that an amount of Rs 104 crore had been deposited by the forest department to the Golaghat district administration for expediting the process.

Conservationists have questioned the commitment of the authorities in clearing encroachment and formally bringing in all the subsequent additions to the national park and tiger reserve.

“It has been more than ten years since the Gauhati High Court had passed its order, directing the forest department and the district administrations to evict encroachers and expand Kaziranga’s area in the long-term interests of conservation. It is shocking that the process has dragged on for over a decade,” a conservationist, who has worked for years in the Kaziranga landscape, said.

As for the Sixth addition, the whole of the cleared area was recently handed over the KNP authorities and notified accordingly. Some of the human-inhabited areas which had earlier been included within the Sixth addition boundaries were recently excluded.

“There was a re-survey and some areas were excluded from the Sixth addition boundary. The excluded areas are Gopal Jarani, Gonaitapu, Jobre, Thute Chapori, Baligaon, Biswanath Ghat, Umatamoni, Gakhirkhaite, Silghat and Hatimura,” sources said, adding that the Sixth addition has been notified and a formal gazette notification was expected soon.

The Sixth addition covering an area 47,391.33 ha runs across four districts – Biswanath, Sonitpur, Nagaon and Golaghat. It covers the subdivisions of Biswanath, Gohpur, Tezpur, Koliabor and Bokakhat and is administered by the Biswanath Wildlife Division.

The Gauhati High Court had ten years back ordered the deputy commissioners of Golaghat, Sonitpur and Nagaon to take expeditious steps to evict the inhabitants in the Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth additions of Kaziranga within one month.