Kaziranga National Park — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the world's largest population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros — is currently protected by a 10 km eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). This buffer exists by default because Kaziranga has never received its final ESZ notification.

The Assam government has announced it will approach the Centre within the next two months with a proposal to shrink this buffer to just 1 km, citing the need to ease infrastructure and development restrictions around Bokakhat, including plans for a new stadium.

We, the undersigned, urge the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Board for Wildlife to reject any proposal that reduces Kaziranga's eco-sensitive zone from 10 km to 1 km.

Why this matters?

Kaziranga's geography depends on a wide buffer. The park floods almost every year, and large parts of it go underwater during the monsoon — animals rely on higher ground just outside the park boundary to survive. A 1 km buffer would cut directly into that escape corridor.

The law already allows for a wide zone. The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling permits ESZs of up to 10 km based on ecological sensitivity — Kaziranga's flood-corridor geography is precisely the kind of case that buffer was designed for.

A 1 km zone opens the door to construction right up against the park. Resorts, real estate, and heavy infrastructure directly abutting Kaziranga would fragment habitat and sharply increase human-wildlife conflict, including rhino and elephant encounters with people. This isn't an isolated move. In June 2025, the state withdrew the preliminary notification for Kaziranga's ninth addition in Sonitpur district — a step conservationists warned would weaken ecological connectivity. Shrinking the ESZ would compound that pattern. Development and conservation aren't mutually exclusive. Bokakhat's need for a stadium and better civic infrastructure doesn't require dismantling a decade of wildlife protection — alternate sites outside core wildlife corridors exist.

Our ask

We call on the MoEFCC and the National Board for Wildlife to:

1. Reject any proposal to reduce Kaziranga's ESZ below what independent ecological and flood-corridor science recommends.
2. Commission an independent, transparent ecological impact study, open to public and civil society review, before any ESZ notification decision is made.
3. Ensure any Bokakhat development plans are sited outside identified wildlife corridors and floodplain escape routes.
4. Kaziranga's rhinos, tigers, and elephants have survived poaching, floods, and decades of pressure. They shouldn't lose their last protected buffer to a stadium.

Sign to tell the Centre: don't shrink Kaziranga's future.