Kaziranga National Park: unlawful construction activity

Key Takeaways

A Supreme Court panel has criticised the Assam government for failing to monitor unlawful construction activity in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve’s animal corridors.

About the Issue

• A Supreme Court panel has prodded the Assam government for laxity in checking illegal construction activities on the animal corridors of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
• The illegal activities are in violation of a Supreme Court order of April 12, 2019, which barred new construction on private lands that are within the corridors that the animals of Kaziranga use to move in and out of the flood-prone park.

Nine notified animal Corridors of Kaziranga

• Seven of these _ Amguri, Bagori, Chirang, Deosur, Harmati, Hatidandi and Kanchanjuri _ are in Nagaon district 
• Haldibari and Panbari are in the adjoining Golaghat district.

Kaziranga National Parks

• Location: located in the state of Assam. It is the largest undisturbed and the most representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain.
• Protection Status:
  1. In India:
     • In 1974, it was designated as a National Park.
     • Since 2007, it has been designated as a tiger reserve.
  2. Internationally
     • In 1985, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
     • Kaziranga has been identified by Birdlife International as an Important Bird Area
• Biodiversity
  • Sanctuary hosts two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses
  • Kaziranga had the third-highest tiger population in India, after Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand and Bandipur National Park in Karnataka
  • Kaziranga has the largest population of the Wild water buffalo anywhere accounting for about 57% of the world population.
  • Kaziranga contains significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species,of which 15 are threatened as per the IUCN Red List.
  • The9 of the 14 species of primates present on the Indian subcontinent can be found in Kaziranga.
• Rivers Passes through it
  • Four main rivers — Brahmaputra, Diphlu, Mora Diphlu and Mora Dhansiri and have numerous small water bodies.
• National Highway Passes Through it
  • The National Highway 37 passes through the park area
  • This highway starts from Sutarkandi near Karimganj in Assam and terminates at Bhali in Manipur.

News Source: The Hindu