Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Guwahati: Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi is firing back at the Assam government. He blasted the recent decision to shrink the Eco-Sensitive Zone around Kaziranga National Park. Gogoi claims the move ignores the rampant illegal mining choking the area.
Gogoi took to social media to call out two recent additions to the State Wildlife Board. The government appointed Tuliram Ronghang and Debolal Gorlosa as experts under the title of Eminent Conservationist, Ecologist and Environmentalist. Gogoi finds this laughable. He pointed to an FIR naming Gorlosa and his wife in connection to a deadly rat-hole mining disaster at Kala Mati in Umrangso, Dima Hasao, where nine people perished. A separate case regarding witness intimidation also hangs over that site.
The Congress leader also targeted Ronghang, who serves as Chief Executive Member of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. He raised red flags over the council's track record of handing out mining permits. A 2019 report from the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee found that the council issued these permits without any authority of law. By March 2026, the committee noted the council remained oblivious to basic ecological protections.
Gogoi is not backing down. He argued the current approach is a complete mockery of public sentiment. He claims the government is effectively sabotaging the vital link between local communities and their environment. As the debate over Kaziranga intensifies, the state faces pressure to explain why mining leases persist despite clear directives from the 2025 Central Empowered Committee to freeze all new settlements until watersheds are scientifically mapped.
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