Even as one-horned Rhinoceros continue to be poached in Kaziranga National Park (KNP), resorts, hotels and dhabas continue to run their businesses within one kilometre of its boundary without licence while brick kilns and crushers are located on animal corridors.
There are 71 resorts, hotels, dhabas and other commercial ventures within one to three kilometres of the boundary of KNP. Of these, 60 eating joints and hotels are within one kilometre of the boundary of the KNP. None of them is registered under the Sarai Act.
The revelations have been made in the ‘Performance audit of Kaziranga National Park — Issues and Challenges’ by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. KNP, which is on the World Heritage list, has the world’s largest population of one horned Rhinoceros, wild Buffalo and swamp deer.
Commercial ventures close to KNP continue to run even though the Wildlife Strategy 2002 envisages that land falling within 10 km of the boundaries of the National Parks and Sanctuaries should be notified as eco-fragile zones under the Environment Protection Act.
Environmental activist Rohit Choudhury, fighting against poaching and encroachment inside KNP, said things were bad inside KNP and the Assam government was making false statements that rhino poaching was high in KNP due to non-availability of funds for the protection of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve, whereas the State government is unable to utilise and release the funds in time to the park authorities.
