Illegal mining near Kaziranga

Illegal mining near Kaziranga

The Supreme Court has passed a crucial order on April 12 putting a ban on all kinds of mining and related activities along the Kaziranga National Park and catchment area of rivers originating in the hills of Karbi Anglong district and pass through the Park. This is huge relief as a huge nexus of unscrupulous businessmen have been carrying out indiscriminate quarrying and mining of stones and rocks along the entire southern boundary of the world-famous Kaziranga National Park for several years now. There is no denying the fact the unscrupulous businessmen, who are mostly from Golaghat and Karbi Anglong districts, often receive patronage of political leaders, if not parties. This becomes clear from the fact that no political leader from either district has ever registered protest against mining near Kaziranga, irrespective of whether one belongs to Congress, BJP or Asom Gana Parishad. Given the patronage from political bigwigs, the unscrupulous businessmen also have on their payroll a whole bunch of criminals and armed militants, besides hefty donations to various student groups, and socio-cultural bodies of the two districts. One must salute Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta of the Supreme Court for having issued a notice to the Assam government on this issue of mining around Kaziranga. The ad verbatim text of their order as available in the apex court’s website is as follows – “We order that all kinds of mining and related activities along the aforesaid Kaziranga National Park area and in the entire catchment area of rivers/streams and rivulets originating in Karbi Anglong Hill ranges and flowing into the Kaziranga National Park, including Tiger Reserve are restrained. No new construction shall be permitted on private lands which form part of the nine identified animal corridors.”

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