Spurt in human settlements, tourist facilities poses threat Sivasish Thakur GUWAHATI, Dec 28 – Growing human settlements and unregulated tourism have posed a threat to the long-term conservation prospects of Kaziranga National Park. The critical animal corridors linking the park to the forests of the nearby Karbi Anglong hills have been the worst affected by the spurt in settlements and tourist facilities. Only a few functional corridors now exist across the National Highway-37 between the park and the adjoining highlands of Karbi Anglong. These, too, have been subject to increasing anthropogenic pressures.
“In the past, the forests of Karbi Anglong and the grasslands of Kaziranga formed a single contiguous ecological belt with very few human habitations. But the gradual opening up of the area on the southern side of the NH-37 resulted in expansion of settlements, tourist facilities and tea gardens,” a forest official said.
But the worrying factor is that settlements as well as commercial activities in Kaziranga’s periphery have been on the rise. “More population and commercial activities mean more anthropogenic pressure on the corridors as well as disturbance to the animals. We have seen resorts coming up very close to the park’s boundary,” he said.
According to the official, a policy decision at the government level is urgently needed to regulate this uncalled-for growth of tourist centres and settlements. “This has to be ensured that the critical corridors across the highway – widely utilized by the wild animals, especially in distress during high floods -- are not adversely impacted by mushrooming populations and tourist facilities,” the official said.
PJ Bora of WWF-India, who has been associated with its Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape Programme, said that the existing important corridors, i.e., Haldibari, Kanchanjuri and Panbari, were under growing human pressure and there was an urgent need to prevent any further degradation.
“We are also working with the local communities to create awareness about conservation and check further damage to the corridors. Efforts are also on to restore some of the lost forest cover on the corridor through plantation,” he said.
The periodical review of the Kaziranga National Park by the World Heritage Committee as a World Heritage Property has also taken into account the erosion of the animal corridors linking it to Karbi Anglong. It is of the view that while regulated tourism is essential for the education of and understanding by the people of the importance of the park, it is equally essential that tourism is not allowed to impact adversely the park’s ecology and management. The committee has also expressed serious concern over the proposed four-lane highway inside Kaziranga, terming it a “potential threat to the integrity of the park”, and saying that “upgrading the national highway will transform the already problematic road crossing into an impossible barrier for the wildlife.”
Encroachment has been a problem in some of the six subsequent additions to the 429.93-sq km park such as the second, third, fourth and sixth. Pending court litigations have also compounded the process of evicting the settlers. The additions to the park are the first addition Burhapahar (43.79 sq km), second addition Sildubi (6.47 sq km), third addition Panbari (0.69 sq km), fourth addition Kanchanjuri (0.89 sq km), fifth addition Haldibari (1.15 sq km), and sixth addition the stretch of the Brahmaputra river (including chars) running along the park’s southern boundary.
