Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: The Assam Congress is hitting the streets. On August 29, the party will stage a state-wide march to block plans for shrinking the Eco-Sensitive Zone around Kaziranga National Park. State Congress general secretary Ramanna Baruah issued a circular directing district committees to rally their workers against the move.
State officials want to shrink the buffer from the standard 10 kilometers down to a sliver between 1 and 3 kilometers. This zone acts as a protective shield where commercial activity remains heavily restricted. Critics argue the change invites mining and unchecked tourism into the park and the Karbi Anglong hills, a vital elephant corridor.
Environmentalists fear the move will spike human-animal conflicts and wreck the park's biodiversity. The UNESCO World Heritage Site stands to lose critical habitat if the government succeeds. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma insists the policy shift is about local people. Sarma stated the reduction is "intended to protect villagers living within the ESZ and safeguard their livelihoods."
Updated at 27th August 2026 at 9:54pm
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma walked back his blanket proposal for a one-kilometer buffer, clarifying in New Delhi that the figure was specific only to the Bokakhat area. He stated that different zones within the Kaziranga area will have different requirements based on wildlife movement. Sarma insisted that an expert-led committee will draft the final plan, which must then clear the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Board for Wildlife.
A fight over a luxury resort at Ingle Pathar has turned into a legal firestorm. Local residents and farmers claim they are being forced off ancestral land to make room for a 106-room hotel tied to Juniper Hotels. While the company claims it does not intend to operate the property, court documents link the site to a Hyatt-branded Alila resort. The dispute triggered the arrest of five activists, with the state later invoking the National Security Act against Pranab Doley to keep him behind bars.
Conservation groups and local reporters allege that the push for tourism is already gutting the area. They point to the rise of unregulated resorts, garbage dumping, and illegal stone quarrying that has choked wetlands and buried local water sources. Critics argue that these commercial projects have caused groundwater levels to plummet and increased pollution in the Difloo River, leaving indigenous communities with dry wells and flooded fields.
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