How proposed hotels in Kaziranga National Park threaten both man, animal existence

For 55-year-old Lokhu Gowala, his four-acre farm means the world. It is this farm which supplies the annual stock of paddy for Lokhu, his wife and two sons — aged 23 and 19 years. For over 30 families, who have their farms near the Kohora range of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR), a UNESCO world heritage site, the land has provided yearly paddy stock. But the families fear all that is set to change with the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government showing the green flag to a five-star hotel by Hyatt Group and a resort by TATA Group in the name of ‘boosting tourism’. The question, however, isn’t just one of land, but also that of a threat to the ecological balance of the region.

It is for this reason that locals, activists, political organisations and lately, non-government organisations, working in the field of environment protection, have risen to oppose the projects.

The contested place is known to be frequented by huge herds of elephants and it is their wandering ground, especially during the monsoon when flood submerges swathes of KNPTR area. For generations, people and wild animals have co-existed near Hatikhuli Inle Pothar, the site of the proposed mega hotel projects.

“We eat the paddy we cultivate and so do the elephants. For generations, this harmonious existence of man and wild animals in Kaziranga has remained firm. We have also encountered tigers, deer and other wild animals that frequent this place during floods. On June 7, however, I received the first jolt when I found my house razed to the ground,” said Lokhu, who recently built a two-room pucca house in the middle of his farm.

Lokhu Gowala’s revenue slip for the land, shared with the reporter by Soneswar Narah.

Most other people in the area have makeshift structures made out of bamboo. These houses are used by the locals to either store farm produce, farm equipment, or camp to guard their fields.

“Every year, people around make temporary bamboo houses to guard their farms from elephants and other animals. This is not our residence, but a sort of farmhouse. This year, I constructed the house with concrete and laid a tin roof. The authorities just came and demolished it,” Lokhu told The Federal.

Lokhu works in a nearby tea garden and stays with his family in the cramped worker’s quarters, and so do the others who sow paddy at Inle Pothar, living in harmony with the wild animals of Kaziranga.

In May, Lokhu and the others who farm on the land in the said region were served notices from the circle officer of Bokakhat saying that the land, which he claims his family has been farming on for generations, belongs to the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) and he has built the house illegally. Upon receiving the notice, Lokhu went to the ATDC office to meet the officials and show that he has the receipts of paying annual land revenue for years, but he was reportedly turned away.

On June 7, Lokhu and the other men, went to the Bokakhat circle office to submit a memorandum against the ‘land acquisition’, when he returned Lokhu found his house turned to rubble. “After receiving the notice in May, we went to the SDO (Civil) to enquire about the matter but returned without an answer. And after a few days, I found my house demolished,” he told The Federal.

“We do farming to sustain the year and now this is being snatched away from us.”

Many warn that if the locals are uprooted from the area, it would serve as a jolt to the wildlife too.

“Kaziranga is safe so far as its wildlife is safe, and as long as the people live in harmony with the wild. For this, saving the land rights of the people living there for generations is the most important aspect. This is an attempt of land grab for big corporates while the adivasis and indigenous communities are at the receiving end. This is not acceptable,” Pranab Doley, a youth leader from Bokakhat, said.

“The government’s argument of generating employment and boosting the economy by promoting tourism makes no sense. Will tourists visit Kaziranga to see the hotels and resorts or the wildlife and its mesmerizing beauty? There are already big hotels and resorts like Borgos, IORA, Mandu and the Bani Greens that belong to the family of the Chief Minister. There is no need for more,” Doley said.

The Memorandum of Understanding for the project was signed between the Assam government and Hyatt Group in 2021-22. Doley filed an RTI about the MoU with the revenue department. In response to his RTI, the revenue office asked him to approach the ‘concerned authority’ — the ATDC.

When a ‘helipad’ project failed to take off

In 2015-16, there was a proposal to construct a helipad in and around the same place where the hotels are proposed to come up. Back then, a team comprising environmental activist Bubul Sarma, Kaziranga researcher Manoj Gogoi, and Corbett Foundation expert Naveen Pandey said the area is frequented by elephants, deer, wild boars and any construction activity would severely damage the ecological balance.

The then director of KNP, P Shivkumar, submitted a report saying the same and the Sonowal government dropped the plan. “If a helipad can be a problem, then how come big hotels are not,” asked Soneswar Narah, chief adviser Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha, a farmers’ rights organisation advocating for the rights of peasant and indigenous communities in Assam.

Of land rights and ecological balance

The people are opposing the government’s move on two counts — one is land rights of the poor farmers and two, the ecological balance. “No land will be given for such a purpose. The BJP government should stop eyeing the land of the tea gardeners,” Sushil Kalindi, the Golaghat district secretary of the Assam Tea Tribes Students Union (ATTSA), opposing the initiative,” said.

Notably, the affected people in the Rongajan Inle Pothar area near Hatikhuli tea estate are mostly from the tea tribes’ community. The communities have been denied most rights in Assam and continue to live in dilapidated colonies since the time of the British regime.

“For over 200 years, our communities have been deprived of land rights in the state. The government, instead of acquiring land, should provide ‘pattas’ (legal land ownership) to us. And now, few families having pattas in Inle Pothar have also been served notices,” he added.

Concurring with Kalindi, Doley said that such initiatives are an effort at laying the red carpet for big corporates while snatching livelihood from the poor who know how to co-exist with nature.

When this reporter tried to contact Bokakhat circle officer, he was told the officer is busy with providing relief to the flood-affected people. Repeated attempts to reach the additional district commissioner), Revenue, Golaghat, did not bear results.

However, Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, reveled in his message in X on June 15 that the government allocated to said land to ATDC for developing tourism while claiming that the NDA government is committed to protecting wildlife in Kaziranga.

But Soneswar Narah points out that the tourism Himanta Biswa Sarma aims to promote in Kaziranga through five-star hotels is not sustainable.

“This tourism is merely a profit-driven and power-centric business. It is not in the best interest of Kaziranga’s sustainability. They can misuse their power to build five-star hotels by evicting the general public with compensation, but how will they compensate and resolve the harm done to the precious wildlife,” Narah said.

“The administration is now trying to convince a section of the affected people that they won’t lose all their land, but a portion of it. Sadly, some are agreeing to the proposal. It is a dangerous path to tread. The poor people will be lured by big money for a ‘small portion of land’. Slowly, the whole land will ultimately be acquired by the government for corporate interest. This a standard model of acquiring land from innocent tribals and Adivasi people,” he added.

Narah also questioned the role of environmental NGOs working actively in Kaziranga.

According to environment journalist Mubina Akhtar, the ‘land grab’ is a nefarious attempt of handing the land of the poor farmers to the corporates and is unacceptable.

“While Brahmaputra is eroding at a fast rate towards the north of Kaziranga, many indigenous people, mainly the Mishings have suffered the worst. Over 30 years, three generations have been displaced. All they did was engage in farming activities that are in harmony with the wildlife. Same is the case with the tea tribes who toil hard to make a living,” she said.

Threatened animal corridors

Moving from the capital city of Guwahati, the main forest of KNPTR lies on the left side of the NH715, earlier NH37. The park is nestled between the mighty Brahmaputra on the north, while the gorgeous Karbi Hills (Karbi Anglong district) run along the south, adding to its scenic beauty. Animals from the forest often cross the highway towards highlands of the foothills of Karbi Hill. The proposed site of the hotel projects lies in the highlands in the south.

There are nine animal corridors with Kanchanjuri being the largest one. According to Bubul Sarma, these corridors are severely affected due to construction, mainly hotels and resorts on the southern side. “The Kanchanjuri corridor has been turned into an optional one with lights in the night, disturbing the free movement of animals,” Sarma said, adding that further construction of huge hotels will aggravate the situation, opposing the latest proposal of Hyatt and TATA hotels/resorts.

“Aranya and Banani, the tourist lodges of the government in Kaziranga are in bad shape. Those could have been revived instead of inviting big corporate players to build new hotels. The tourism has to be in harmony with the ecological balance,” Sarma said.

Adding to it, Mubina Akhtar told this writer that the Asiatic elephants have a long corridor starting in Myanmar and extending to Bhutan, passing a long distance via Assam. The elephant projects were developed keeping this in view and now the corridors are severely disrupted due to human activities, which is the leading cause of the growing elephant-man conflicts in Assam. “The obstructions in the corridors are high in the districts of Udalguri (bordering Bhutan), Nagaon and Golaghat,” she added.

For the free movements of migratory animals, connecting forests are vital. “The Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong is a crucial corridor and during floods, animals throng the Inle Pothar area. Disrupting it will further intensify the man-animal conflict in and around Kaziranga,” Akhtar asserted.

Citing another example, she said that the golden tiger seen recently in Kaziranga is due to disruption of their free movement which led to genetic alteration and the colour aberration in it. “Tigers need gene transfer, meaning they don’t inbreed and for that they move distances to find mates. The disruption of their corridors led to inbreeding and we saw the genetic alteration.”