To the people of the Nation,

A month back, the Golaghat district administration issued eviction notices to people residing inside Kaziranga National Park, asking them to vacate the land within 10 days. In order to increase the size of Kaziranga National Park, families were evicted from their houses and as a result they lost their cattle grazing and farming lands overnight.

We stand together to prevent the herders residing inside Kaziranga National Park to be evicted without proper compensation. The media has largely portrayed these herders residing inside Kaziranga National Park as illegal encroachers to a heritage site. Simple monetary compensation will not solve the issue. We stand in unison with the farmers and herders residing inside Kaziranga National Park to provide fertile lands in lieu of the land that the government is taking from them.

The Problem

The Assam government affirmed the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve's extension, recently, adding 30 square kilometers to the biggest territory of the one-horned rhinoceros on the planet. While park specialists and progressives have said that new zones will improve the future of the animals that endure the worst part of the yearly floods and poaching; but for neighborhood individuals, the extension is a danger to their properties.

On September 4, the Assam government affirmed an expansion of 3053 hectares (30.53 square kilometers) to the Kaziranga National Park. An administration discharge expressed that the augmentations were lands from where "infringements" have been eliminated and appropriate untamed life living space in riverine islands otherwise called chaporis of Brahmaputra. From around 885 square kilometers, the park’s territory has now expanded to 915 square kilometers with these new augmentations.

Even following 46 years, park development stays disputable. Riri, a town on the banks of Brahmaputra including the Mising, Nepali and Bihari people group, has been challenging the new development. There was no meeting with the inhabitants of Riri and different towns who as of late found that their villages fall inside the National Park.

In 2012, two new petitions regarded individuals contradicting park development as encroachers and referred to their contribution in the rising quantities of rhino poaching cases. On January 9, 2013, the Gauhati High Court held that “no illegality has been committed in proposing to evict the encroachers of forest land”. The Kaziranga people group challenged the Gauhati High Court's structure. They contended that the general concept of 'expansion' abuses Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA), 1972. The solicitors referred to segment 35 of the WLPA which says that limit changes in a public park needs obligatory endorsements from National Board of Wildlife (NBWL). The request expressed that 'increases' or extension of Kaziranga National Park were never examined at NBWL. In October 2015, the Gauhati High Court requested expulsion of residents from all the current and the proposed 'expansion' lands. On September 19, 2016, two towns, Banderdubi and Deosur were removed in which two people including a teenaged young lady were executed during a tussle with the law enforcers. After clearing 331 houses, the park specialists made sure about the ownership of 483 hectares from Deosur and Banderdubi towns under the eighth expansion. Despite the removals, poaching continued, resulting in the death of 16 rhinos over the most recent three years.

Many feel they have minimal authority over the decision. For people group considered indigenous, the subject of pay is a long way from settled. In Halodhibari, an Adivasi ruled town that is incompletely situated in the fifth expansion, the interest is land in lieu of land. Here, the individuals have been told their fields fall in the fifth expansion.

"What use is financial pay on the off chance that we don't get land to cultivate?" asked Ajay Karmakar, a villager residing inside Kaziranga National Park. “How will we survive without our farms? If the government agrees to give us fertile land somewhere else, we will talk.”

We Support

We, as the collective population of India, stand with the hundreds of farmers and herders that protest this cause today till our cumulative voice reaches the concerned authorities and they can take a step in the right direction. We are in full support of the people residing inside Kaziranga National Park using their voice to attain social and economic justice.

We Demand

In the light of the above, we need your support in demanding the following from the Central Government, Environment Ministry, Assam Government and Gauhati High Court:

• Provide land in lieu of land for all the people evicted from Kaziranga National Park. People living in and around the park had settled there over the years under a variety of circumstances. It cannot be that only people with land titles get monetary compensation or land.

Consistent with our mission, we remain open to all opinions that readers and experts have for us.

Petition by students of IIM Ahmedabad | PGP 2019-21

1. Sounak Bhadra

2. Nitika Negi

Petition endorsed by: 

1. Prof. Sandeep Pandey, Ph.D., UC Berkeley; Visiting Faculty, IIT Kanpur, IIT Gandhinagar, BHU Varanasi, IIM Ahmedabad (Social Activist)