NGT Order on Kaziranga

It is hardly surprising that the Greater Kaziranga Human Resource and Environment Protection Committee proposes to challenge in the Supreme Court the stand of the tiol Green Tribul (NGT) on dhabas and other business establishments along the stretch of tiol Highway 37 passing through the Kaziranga Game Sanctuary. On Tuesday, the NGT had issued an order for the demolition of eateries and other such structures located within 500 metres of the boundary of Kaziranga tiol Park (KNP). There are 35 such structures and 23 more such structures situated in the park corridors. There are 10 stone mining units, two brick kilns, 11 stone crushers located between 0.14 km and 6.5 km from the park and a sawmill located about 6.4 km from the park. We are in agreement that all the stone crushers, brick kilns and the sawmill that create either atmospheric pollution or noise pollution should be demolished and packed off somewhere else. But eateries support tourists and sustain the local economy. Besides, there are two important questions that the NGT must face. The first is: What was it doing all these years and months when these eateries came up instead of ordering their closure only now? The second is: Why is the NGT so lenient to the thousands of encroachers who have built their homes right within the Kaziranga tiol Park? If the eateries have violated the NGT norms, have the encroachers not done worse for much longer?