Kaziranga National Park: Safe

Guwahati, Oct. 28: A proposed project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will not have any adverse impact on Kaziranga National Park, according to an environmental impact assessment.

The Assam integrated flood and riverbank erosion risk management investment programme supported by the bank is likely to be implemented soon.

The assessment report prepared by the state water resources department through a consultative process of review by the bank and other stakeholders, said the project is not expected to harm the park’s biological resources, since it will be implemented outside the park area.

Kaziranga National Park is the most significant natural habitat of the one-horned rhinoceros and a host of other precious wildlife.

The assessment was carried out in accordance with the environment assessment guidelines of the ADB and guidelines of the Centre.

The report said any civil work planned along the national park’s border would be mostly of minor earth and related work implemented with the involvement of local labour.

The work can be implemented without affecting the natural habitat of the wildlife, subject to application of due mitigation measures such as avoidance of construction camps along the border area, particularly near the wallowing site inhabited by rhinoceros, wild buffalo, and other protected species of the national park, it adds.

The Kaziranga sub-project, which is one of the areas where the project will be implemented, is adjacent to the national park. Flood embankments have been set up along the Brahmaputra since the early 1960s.

The project will provide 4.7km of new secondary embankment to prevent the sudden intrusion of floodwater into the national park in case the frontline Brahmaputra dyke is breached, three sluice gates along the national park boundary dyke, and 3km of riverbank protection through siltation measures using porcupines.

The report says 2,000 trees in the reaches of Kaziranga are likely to be cut down and maximum efforts will be made to minimise the cutting of the trees while designing the embankments. Compensatory tree plantation will also be undertaken.

The impact of riverbank protection work in the Kaziranga sub-project on morphology of the park’s area was also considered negligible, it said.