Kaziranga to go ahead with eco zone plans

Guwahati: Amid protests that have hampered public hearing on Kaziranga National Park’s proposed eco-sensitive zone, the forest department said it would move ahead with zone-delineation in the interest of wildlife and local communities living on the fringes of the national park.
Recently, protesters at Bokakhat in Golaghat district did not allow the public hearing to take place and demanded more time to understand the issue.
Kaziranga, a Unesco World Heritage Site around 250 km from here, has long been in need of an eco-sensitive zone following a Supreme Court order in 2006. Technical problems and opposition from various organizations have delayed the process.
In April this year, the park authorities prepared a draft on the proposed eco-sensitive zone.
“We have to demarcate an area and no one will be affected. It will protect the park’s ecology effectively,” said S S Rao, chairman of the eco-sensitive zone committee. Rao added that the eco-sensitive zone would cover an area between 500 m and 30 km.
Once the area gets the eco-sensitive tag, activities in the region would be classified as prohibited, regulated and permitted.
In the draft proposal, prohibited activities include commercial mining, setting up of industries, establishment of major power plants, big dams and heavy industries that would pollute water bodies, rivers, streams and land area other than designated landfills.
Regulated activities would include change of land use from agriculture to non-agriculture, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, establishment of new tea gardens, petrol and diesel oil filling stations, felling of trees, establishment of new hotels and resorts and use of polythene, among others.
Widening of existing roads, promotion of homestays and eco-tourism, would fall in the permitted category.
Officials accused ‘vested interest groups’ of spreading rumours of eviction.
“We held a series of consultations with diverse organizations around the park. We tried our best to explain that the zone is necessary for the park. Normal activities will not be hampered,” park director M K Yadav said.
He added that the construction of concrete structures along the fringes of the park, which are a threat to ecology, would be significantly regulated.