KAZIRANGA, Sept 30 - In view of the opening of the Kaziranga National Park from tomorrow for visiting tourists, many wildlife biologists felt that there would not be any kind of adverse impact on the ecology and for that matter the grass habitat of Kaziranga.
While speaking to this correspondent, Dr Pranab Bora from WWF-India said there would not be any problem from the ecological point of view, since tourists would go for safari either on elephants or jeep, which would follow only specified tourist roads inside Kaziranga National Park, like in previous years. Secondly, the tourists are not allowed to go walking inside the park areas, so there will be no chance of any damage of vegetation inside the Park. There are some restrictions where the tourists are not allowed to even to get down from the safari vehicles except at some watch tower points. There will be no difference by preponing of the schedule by a month.
Another wildlife biologist who has been working in Kaziranga and other wildlife parks and sanctuaries of Assam for a long period of time, especially in attending to wild animals in stressful conditions, but did not wish to be named said that there would not be any negative impact on the ecology of Kaziranga but added that some kind of regulations are needed especially in the last part of December and the first week of January to streamline the jungle safari when the inbound tourists of both international and domestic level are exceptionally high.
Meanwhile, the Kaziranga Development and Jeep Safari Association and owners of private elephants safari have expressed serious reservation over the reported statement made by the chairman of Balipara Foundation, Ranjit Borthakur, saying that there is no point in dragging the issue unnecessarily. Ananda Gogoi, secretary of the association said that the government must have done its home work before opening the park. So whatever Borthakur had said was baseless and urged him not to create unnecessary controversies. This would only create confusion among the tourists who had already booked their hotel rooms at Kaziranga. The Assam Government had a long time back announced its intention of opening of the Kaziranga National Park from October 1. Photic Bora, a senior functionary of private elephants safari association said that the Government had definitely discussed the matter with wildlife experts before taking a final decision to open the park.
