Land Encroachment Poses Major Challenge to Kaziranga: IUCN Report

STAFF REPORTER GUWAHATI:

Kaziranga National Park Land Encroachment Report: Land encroachment is posing one of the major challenges for the world-famed Kaziranga National Park (KNP).

The latest conservation assessment report of the 'International Union for Conservation of Nature' (IUCN) has stated that even though Kaziranga is a well-managed and preserved protected area, the national park is still facing some major challenges including land encroachment, unplanned tourism infrastructure, highway traffic,invasive species and impacts of climate change.

"There has been no significant deterioration in its (Kaziranga) values over the years; and the natural attributes are likely to continue their healthy trend at least in the short term. However, land encroachment, pressure from unplanned tourism infrastructure, highway traffic, invasive species, as well as impacts of monsoon floods, which are growing in intensity and frequency due to climate change, are increasing," says the IUCN in its report.

The IUCN report further says that the potential threats that will pose challenges to the conservation of Kaziranga in the future include human-wildlife conflict, river bank erosion, impacts of climate change, tourist pressures, changing demographic and economic profile of the local population, tensions with local communities and illegal fishing.

"Overall, protection & management of the national park (Kaziranga) remain relatively effective, despite increasing concern over the impact of military-style anti-poaching efforts on the relationships with local communities surrounding the site (Kaziranga). Implementation of adaptive management strategies to deal with the intensification of threats to the site is needed to continue the conservation of its values into the foreseeable future," adds the IUCN.

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