Introduction: On 9th September 2020 in exercise of the power conferred by Section 35 of the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972, the Gov...
Introduction:
On 9th September 2020 in exercise of the power conferred by Section 35 of the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972, the Governor of Assam declared the area as the 9th addition to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, with an area of 25.7 sq km. This decision was withdrawn by a notification on 9th June 2025, which cancelled the Preliminary Notification of the 9th addition to Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve falling under Tezpur Revenue Circle, Sonitpur District, notified vide Government Notification No. FRW.4/2020/47. The addition was a part of a series of expansion projects that were made to the national park for wildlife protection. These areas are largely used by the traditional settlers. With this intervention, people not only lost their land, but there is also a rise in the human-wildlife conflict.
According to the Wildlife Institute of India, there are 107 national parks in the country, out of which about 89 national parks are in tribal areas. These protected areas serve as the lifeline for the indigenous and the tribal populations that reside in the fringe areas of biodiversity hotspots. Forest, traditionally used for foraging, gathering, and community activities, has been converted into Protected Areas, restricting the use of commons and ignoring its ecological and socio-economic relationship with the local population. National Park as a concept has a colonial and imperialist legacy. During the colonial period, the institutionalisation of forest management was established with the Indian Forest Act 1865 which was later revised in 1878 and 1927. These acts further alienated the indigenous and the tribes from the forest and land, where it exerted control and regulated the forest-dwelling people. Post-independence, the legal framework for Reserve Forest, National Parks, Protected Areas and wildlife protection is backed by the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, a UNESCO world Heritage site, known for its successful conservation efforts, serves as an example. With its known glory of conservation, there is a systemic alienation of the people from the forest and land. The exclusionary model known as the Fortress Conservation Model, which protects ecology by excluding human activity by alienating the locals, has drawn the attention of human rights activists, researchers, social workers, etc. Pranab Doley, leader of the opposition, affected community member, and the president of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee, says the withdrawal of the 9th addition is unknown; its implementation was also without any consent of the people. There must be some large profiteering interest of the forest department and the neoliberal government to extract profit out of it. Additions are unconstitutional and illegal entities promoted by the KNPTR; they infringe on the lands and commons of both indigenous and local communities forcefully.
The case of expansion in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger reserve
With an area of 430 sq km Kaziranga was declared as a National Park in 1974. Since then Kaziranga National Park has seen many additions.
National Park | Area Sq. Km | Location (District) | Date of Notification |
Kaziranga | 430 | Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur | 11/02/1974 |
Kaziranga 1st addition | 43.78 | Nagaon | 28/05/1997 |
Kaziranga 2nd addition | 6.47 | Golaghat | 10/07/1985 |
Kaziranga 3rd addition | 0.69 | Golaghat | 31/05/1985 |
Kaziranga 4th addition | 0.89 | Nagaon | 03/08/1988 |
Kaziranga 5th addition | 1.15 | Golaghat | 13/06/1985 |
Kaziranga 6th addition | 376 | Sonitpur, Biswanath | 07/08/1999 |
Kaziranga 7th addition | 1.76 | Nagaon | 06/07/2021 |
Kaziranga 8th addition | 3.07 | Nagaon | 06/07/2021 |
Kaziranga 9th addition (Cancelled) |
25.7 |
Sonitpur |
30/06/2021 |
Kaziranga 10th addition | 4.52 | Biswanath | 08/11/2021 |
Among these, the 6th addition covers the largest area making it the biggest expansion of a National Park in North-East-India. The addition is an extended area of the National Park, it majorly comprises the river Brahmaputra and its shifting sandbar islands traditionally used by the indigenous population, Nepali, Bihari and Mising Tribe, the land is used for agricultural activities, grazing, herding etc, these were regularised by the communities paying touzi bahi (pasture tax) since the early 1900s. The shrinking availability of land and the recurrent floods and erosion, the river not only becomes unfavorable for their economic growth but also pushes them to poverty. Brahmaputra is a lifeline of the Mising tribe for its interdependence with the river for fishing, transportation and the source of alluvial soil for agriculture. This history of coexistence has not been acknowledged in the conservation policy while making the National Park.
Project Tiger and Traditional Settlers
Along with the additions Project Tiger was launched on April 1st, 1973, under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Various citations and examples of successful conservation of the One Horned Rhinoceros in Kaziranga in the 1970s have influenced conservation policy nationwide. Padma Shree Kailash Sankhala, known as the Tiger-Man of India, was inspired and has mentioned the conservation effort of Kaziranga at various events and became the first director of Project Tiger. Initially, with 9 tiger reserves, the aspiration of the fortress model for conservation became very eminent nationally. With statements like “Give me 10 years without political and bureaucratic interference, and God willing, we shall save the tiger, Madam!” by Kailash Sankhala to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were highly celebrated, ignoring the importance of a political, economic, and social understanding of the local people. With this influence of the conservation model, the Tiger Project has increased to 54 tiger reserves across 18 states in India today. Kaziranga National Park became the 39th Tiger Reserve in 2006.
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has one of the most densely populated tiger populations in India. According to a report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the park has 125 tigers, which is the highest in northeastIndia. As tigers are territorial animals, with the larger population, it requires a larger area for hunting. According to a report by NTCA the tiger population in India has doubled its size since 1973. With more than 3500 tigers in India, it is one of the largest tiger habitats in the world.
The ambitious Tiger Project has indeed affected the rural poor, especially the tribals, who are the worst affected. According to a report published in The Wire, more than 89,800 families from 848 villages, mostly belonging to the Adivasi community that is entitled to forest rights, are to be summarily relocated from Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs) or the core area of 54 tiger reserves. In the case of Assam, among 4 tiger reserves, there will be 1085 directly affected families in the process. Experts say out of 4 tiger reserves in Assam, most of the eviction will take place in Kaziranga National Park, and the expansionist policy directly links with the
project. tiger. This raises an eye on the upcoming conservation efforts of the National Parks and its acknowledgment of human rights in the forest areas.
In March 2025, Gopi Nath Mili, a farmer belonging to the Mising tribe from Selek Village, Dusutimukh Panchayat, went to his farmland located in one of the sandbar shifting islands, Budhe Sapori, in the river Brahmaputra. The island traditionally used by the local communities as farmland now falls under the 6th addition of the Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve. His visit to his farm was fatal, where he lost his life after a Royal Bengal Tiger attacked and hunted him down. This is the first case of a man-eating Tiger after the announcement of the 6th addition in 1999 and the Tiger Project in 2007 in Kaziranga.
The anxious villagers of Dusitumukh Panchayat were once again terrorized by the killing of domesticated animals from their homes. On 23rd may, 2025, early in the morning, after spotting the Bengal Tiger, more than a mob of 1000 people gathered from the nearby village, and the mob killed the tiger. This incident created havoc among conservationists worldwide.
The villagers have been protesting for their land rights and the withdrawal of the 6th addition since the time they acquired the information. The expansion of the park, eviction drives, and continuous notices of eviction in other parts of the park have created unrest among the traditional settlers. With the increasing Tiger conservation project, there has been a surge of Human-Tiger conflict. Tigers can be seen in human habitations now. In a photograph taken in the 2019 flood in Kaziranga, a Royal Bengal Tiger can be seen sleeping on a bed in a local resident's bedroom, where the tiger entered the home escaping the flood. There are many videos posted on social media where tigers can be seen roaming in the fields and farms of the local hunting pet and domesticating the animal as prey.
While the 9th addition to Kaziranga has been cancelled for the expansionist project, more than 700 km² of land is still under the administrative area of the forest department in the name of addition. The indigenous and the tribals living in this land still struggle for their rights over their land that they have been living in for centuries. The conflict between the conservation efforts and the Human Right violation needs to be addressed through a dialogue that makes the communities stakeholders in the conservation efforts and participants in policy- level intervention, rather than following a western idea, the Fortress Conservation Model, which alienates the people from nature and follows a top-down approach without acknowledging communities rights and knowledge, which they have acquired over centuries.
No comments