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Reacting to Assam government’s plans to hand over land to luxury hotels adjacent to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took suo motu cognisance of the case on August 7.
NGT’s principal bench transferred the case to the green tribunal’s Eastern Zone for further hearing on the matter.
Earlier on August 5, the principal bench comprising of Chairperson, Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member A Senthil Vel moved an application citing a news report.
On the other hand, Assam government on August 3, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Group to set up a five-star Taj Hotel in Hatikhuli area, situated less than a kilometre from the core area of Kaziranga National Park.
Tata owns the Hatikhuli Tea Estate where the said hotel would be built over an area of eight hectares, according to the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sanstha, a tea workers’ union based in Assam.
In a similar announcement in September 2023, the Assam government announced an MoU with Hyatt Hotels and Resorts that attracted a mass movement against the plans to set up the 5-star hotel in Inglay Pathar in Kaziranga, where several Adivasi families eke out their livelihoods by cultivating the land.
On June 7, the Assam government initiated the process of handing over a land measuring 60 bighas (around 30 acres) to Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) by demolishing the house of an Adivasi farmer named Lokhu Gowala.
Following this incident, 45 Adivasi families, who claim that they possess ownership documents and that they were paying land revenues have been attempting to establish control over the land.
However, with a police battalion setting up an outpost on the land, there have been reports of violent scuffles between the Adivasi families, their representatives from local political and human rights organisations and the police.
Golaghat District Administration, under which the area falls, has claimed that the said land which was allotted to Hyatt was transferred to ATDC in November 2022 by the sub-divisional land committee under the watch of Assam’s Agriculture Minister Atul Bora.
The Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee (GKLHRC) — an organisation of members from close to 100 villages in and around Kaziranga has been protesting against the land transfers since 2022.
“These common lands now acquired by ATDC have been used by Adivasi farmers for generations. They have land rights over these lands as confirmed by their documents. We have repeatedly submitted these petitions to the Deputy Commissioner of Golaghat. Despite that, the acquisition went without respecting the basic land laws of the country,” Pranab Doley, a political activist from the region and the convenor of GKLHRC told Down To Earth (DTE).
“Further, this land acquisition is posing a huge threat to the coexistence of wild animals from Kaziranga seeking refuge during the flood season and the local farmers. We demand that till the NGT decides over the matter all construction should be stopped immediately and the police battalion should be removed,” he added.
While popular protests relentlessly continue against these developments, conservationists have been expressing their concerns too.
Recently, the Indian chapter of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), wrote a letter to the ATDC raising concerns about plans to set up the 5-star hotel in Inglay Pathar.
In a recent letter to the ATDC, Dilip Changkakoty, Zonal Representative of ICOMOS sought clarification on carrying capacity assessment of the proposed hotel site, impact assessment on the wildlife, community involvement and alignment with sustainable practices.
Sanjib Kumar Borkakoti, a heritage expert and a member of International Union for Conservation of Nature as well as ICOMOS told DTE that the plan to set up such hotels in Kaziranga is a violation of the principles on which natural heritage sites are notified.
“There are two aspects to this. Firstly, during the construction there will be air and sound pollution. After the construction, these hotels will have high voltage lighting on the premises which will make the life of the wildlife very difficult,” he said.
“Secondly, the Assam government has claimed that these proposed hotel sites are outside KNPTR. The proposed Hyatt Hotel is in the buffer zone of KNPTR. The proposed Taj project is within Kaziranga National Park at Hatikhuli Tea Estate. The heritage site principles are clear that no major construction can take place in areas declared as natural heritage. If these hotels are built, it would violate these principles,” Borkakoti added. According to Borkakoti, neither the tourism department nor Assam government responded to the concerns expressed by the advisory body to UNESCO.
According to Barkakoti, neither ATDC nor the Assam government responded to the concerns expressed by the advisory body to UNESCO.
Meanwhile, Sonali Ghosh, the director of KNPTR told DTE that the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) for the park is yet to be finalised.
“Since the ESZ is yet to be declared, all such proposed projects would need environmental as well as forest clearance along with an environment impact assessment,” Ghosh said.
With the NGT taking up the case, the legal experts say that the 10-kilometre eco-sensitive zone as mandated by the Supreme Court of India would be applicable to the proposed hotels.
“Since the delineation of ESZ is not complete for Kaziranga, there should be carrying capacity study conducted to understand what is the environmental impact of the existing infrastructure within the 10-km radius of the park and what is going to be the impact of proposed new five-star hotels on the land use vis-a-vis existing wildlife corridor,” Sreeja Chakraborty, a Bangalore-based environmental lawyer and founder of Living Earth Foundation (LEAF) told DTE.