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The National Green Tribunal (NGT)’s Eastern Bench dismissed a petition related to the construction of two five-star hotels next to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) on February 21, 2025.
The NGT Principal Bench had taken note of a news report that had highlighted impacts of the proposed hotels on local people as well as wildlife and had filed a suo motu petition against the Assam government. Legal experts and local activists have questioned the verdict. The NGT’s judicial activism, while pursuing the case, was misplaced, they stated.
“The apprehensions raised in the news article which form the basis of the present original application are at this stage premature. We, therefore, dismiss the present original application,” stated a bench led by Justice B Amit Sthalekar and expert member Arun Verma on February 21.
On August 25, 2023, Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a company linked to the US-based Hyatt Group of Hotels for a five-star luxury hotel at Inlay Pathar, situated next to the KNPTR’s central range. The proposal seeks to develop 120 rooms with a swimming pool over an area of 8.5 acres (30 bigha), with an investment of Rs 100 crore.
A year later, in August 2024, the Assam government also signed an MoU with Amalgamated Plantations Pvt Ltd and Indian Hotel Co Ltd, both linked to the Tata Group. The MoU was for a five-star Taj Resort and Spa, with an investment of Rs 120 crore in Hatikhuli Tea Garden, around two kilometres from the National Park’s boundary.
In June 2024, the Golaghat district administration moved bulldozers on the 60-bigha parcel of land at Inlay Pathar, which was cultivated by 45-odd Adivasi families and handed it over to the Assam Tourism Development Corporation. The Golaghat district administration also razed the dwelling of Lokhu Gowala, a speech-impaired Adivasi farmer to claim the land with the help of armed policemen.
The local residents allege that since 2020 the community made various representations to the Golaghat district administration to regularise the land holdings which they have been cultivating for several generations. “We cultivated these lands and shared our produce with rhinos and elephants during the flood season when these animals move to higher ground. This new order will displace both animals and us,” said Geeta Gowala, reacting to the NGT order. She is a local farmer who is likely to lose her land to the proposed five-star hotel to be developed by Jenipro Hotels Pvt Ltd, a partner with Hyatt Hotels.
On February 14, the Assam government contested the news report as the basis of the suo motu petition by the NGT principal bench. The said report was based ‘purely’ on assumptions and conjecture and the same is premature in nature, it said.
“Till date, no Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the proposed hotel has been submitted; as and when the same will be received, the proposal will be minutely examined, considering all relevant rules, regulations and norms as well as judicial pronouncements of the Hon’ble Supreme Court before finalising the grant of any approval. It is reiterated that no approval will be granted in violation of any existing rules, regulations, norms and orders of the Hon’ble Courts by the Government of Assam,” stated the affidavit filed by Devajit Saikia, the advocate general of Assam who interestingly also holds the position of the secretary of Board of Cricket Control of India.
The Assam government’s affidavit also spelled out that the locations of the proposed hotels fall within the ‘Integrated Eco-Sensitive Zone’ but are ‘outside the one-kilometre buffer zone of the Kaziranga National Park’. The affidavit cites the report of the Divisional Forest Officer, Eastern Assam Wildlife Division, that both the proposed tourism infrastructure sites do not fall in any notified animal corridors.
Curiously, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in its affidavit before the NGT in the same case outlined that KNPTR is yet to have a tourism plan as mandated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for all tiger reserves. The tourism plan, as approved by the Chief Wildlife Warden, would address issues related to carrying capacity and suggest appropriate locations for hotels and resorts for tourists as per the NTCA rules of 2012.
On the other hand, the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) for KNPTR is yet to see the light of the day as MoEF&CC has not approved or notified the zone. The Assam Government’s affidavit, however, stated Kaziranga authorities have come up an Integrated Eco-Sensitive Zone of Kaziranga National Park and surrounding protected areas which includes six wildlife sanctuaries, one proposed wildlife sanctuary and 10 reserve forests.
The draft eco-sensitive zone of KNPTR, however, is yet to be published by the state government. As per the orders of the Supreme Court, a draft notification is required to be published in the official gazette which is then opened for consultation and objections for a period of 60 days. Curiously, a Right to Information reply from the MoEF&CC from October 2024 revealed that no such draft notification for the ESZ of KNPTR has been published yet.
The NGT verdict on its own case, legal experts feel, ignores the complexities attached to the declaration of the ESZ. Even the Gauhati High Court is hearing on the subject of ESZ for KNPTR as the notification of ESZ remains critical for planning any tourism infrastructure around the national park — the oldest one in Northeast India, with a UNESCO World Heritage Site tag.
“The NGT bench taking up the matter through a suo motu petition and then issuing a verdict based on just an affidavit of the Assam government and MoEF&CC is unfortunate. It could have impleaded local organisations and stakeholders who have been raising issue to this case. It seems like this is a case of misplaced judicial activism on part of the NGT,” Sreeja Chakraborty, a Bengaluru-based environmental lawyer and founder of Living Earth Foundation (LEAF) told Down To Earth (DTE).
NGT’s verdict has shocked local stakeholders like Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee (GKHLRC), an umbrella organization representing over 100 villages in and around the National Park. “The order by the NGT bench on the proposed five-star hotels shows a very half-spirited effort by the tribunal. The court didn’t even bother to verify the lies submitted in the form of a report by the respondents. We, who are facing this loss of our ancestral lands and commons attached to the biodiversity hotspot of Kaziranga, feel betrayed. The ESZ is yet to be declared and no public consultation has taken place. So how could they talk planning tourism infrastructure here? The Assam government should be made accountable for this. We demand these five-star projects and land acquisition for the same to be scrapped immediately,” Pranab Doley, a political activist and convenor of GKHLRC told DTE.