Workers put up the wire fence in Burrapahar tea garden. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, May 24: Kaziranga National Park will take up the issue of construction of a fence with Burrapahar tea garden, which would block the movement of wildlife.

Eastern Assam divisional forest officer D.D. Gogoi said he has asked the range officer to take up the matter with the garden authorities. “The question is, why was the fencing put up suddenly?” Gogoi asked.

Soumen Dey, associate coordinator, WWF-India, said the fencing would affect the free movement of elephants and other wildlife. The problem will be compounded during monsoon, as water starts to flood the park and animals begin to migrate.

“The migrating animals will find this traditional route blocked and face speeding traffic on the national highway. As the animals try to force their way through the fences, there is surely going to be major injuries and possible death because of wounds caused by wires,” Dey said.

The fencing has come up on Kanchanjuri wildlife corridor linking Kaziranga to the Karbi Anglong hills. There are four such corridors in the area — Panbari, Haldibari, Kanchanjuri and Amguri — vital links between the flooded park and higher grounds in Karbi Anglong.

The migrating animals use these corridors to cross over to higher grounds across National Highway 37. In January this year in Kanchanjuri corridor, a black panther was discovered for the first time through camera trapping, along with the first photographic evidence of tigers.

Kanchanjuri corridor is a vital site situated within the Indo-Myanmar bio-diversity hotspot. Geographically, the landscape primarily covers areas south of the Brahmaputra in Assam and touches the neighbouring states of Meghalaya and Nagaland.

WWF’s Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Conservation Programme has been working since 2005 to document the corridors by initiating conservation activities, involving communities around them.

“This is a challenging task as the corridors are densely inhabited with villages and many tourist resorts sprouting up of late,” Dey said.