By Mukut Medhi
Assam: The Kaziranga National Park, of late, is in news for all the wrong reasons. The park has been declared a tiger reserve but locals are up in arms against the move.
The residents fear this could affect their livelihood, as a Tiger Tag will impose restrictions on the inflow of tourists.
It’s a haven for tigers, rhinos who drives tourists inside Kaziranga national park in Assam.
The people are worried because the formal process for declaring Kaziranga as a tiger reserve is now through. The fear is that the tiger tag will impose restrictions on the flow of tourist vehicles thus affecting their livelihood.
Others fear they will be asked to accept a rehabilitation package and be asked to move out of the tiger reserve. People here have now launched an agitation demanding the park be removed from the status of a tiger reserve.
"Our agitation will continue in entire Kaziranga, we do not want the NGOs here, if our demands are not looked into, we will not allow any activity here, we will even not allow foreigners," President, local agitator Punen Gogoi said.
The bone of contention being demarcation of 10 Km Eco-sensitive Zone around Kaziranga. There will be ban on constructing new resorts in the area and the number of vehicles entering the park will also be restricted.
But the government claims bringing Kaziranga under the umbrella of Project Tiger is important and there is no question of de-notifying it from tiger reserve status.
“This is the major source available for management of Kaziranga. If Kaziranga is de-notified as a tiger reserve the funds will stop and we will starve for funds that will adversely effect the over all management conservation in Kaziranga,” S Chand, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Wildlife, Assam said.
The big question is yet to be answered, is the fears of local people genuine or could it be that with elections round the corner, the park has become a victim of politics?
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