Assam: Congress stages Protest against Shrinking Kaziranga's Eco-Sensitive Zone

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Under the aegis of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), a massive sit-in demonstration was staged today at Kohora in Kaziranga against the BJP government's arbitrary decision to shrink the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) designated for safeguarding the environment and biodiversity of the World Heritage Site. Thousands of party leaders and workers participated in the protest held in the presence of APCC President and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi. Holding banners and placards, protesters rent the air across Kohora with various slogans, including "Kaziranga National Park must be protected", "Scrap the proposal to reduce Eco-Sensitive Zone", "Mining in Karbi Anglong hills will not be tolerated", "Stop illegal stone, coal, and sand quarries", "BJP government's repressive policies will not work", "Himanta Biswa Sarma's mafia-giri will not be tolerated", "Himanta Biswa Sarma Go Back", "BJP Go Back", and "Inquilab Zindabad".

Addressing the protest rally, MP and APCC President Gaurav Gogoi launched a scathing attack on the BJP government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. Gogoi alleged that behind the reduction of Kaziranga's Eco-Sensitive Zone lies a deep-rooted conspiracy to favor corporate conglomerates like Adani and Ambani, and to facilitate large-scale commercial mining in the hills of Karbi Anglong. He expressed outrage that BJP leaders, ministers, and MLAs have been recklessly constructing resorts for vested interests by encroaching upon elephant corridors and trampling over the land rights of indigenous and tribal communities. Furthermore, he strongly condemned the attempts to build hotels in Engle Pathar by forcibly dispossessing Adivasi families of their lands. He asserted that rampant illegal coal, stone, and sand mining patronized by the ruling dispensation has triggered catastrophic flood situations across Upper Assam and the Kaziranga belt, completely destroying over 4,000 houses and claiming more than 100 innocent lives. He also pointed out that unabated deforestation and hill mining have forced tigers and elephants out of forests into human settlements, sharply escalating man-animal conflicts.

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