File picture of forestguards at Kaziranga

Guwahati, Nov. 24: The cabinet decision for an alternate alignment of the four-lane National Highway 37 — bypassing the Kaziranga National Park — has come as a rude shock for the people residing along the stretch of the highway from Kaliabor to Numaligarh.

The people residing along the 90-km stretch said the diversion of the national highway would adversely affect the national park and its denizens. Over four lakh people live along the stretch of NH 37.

“Militant activities and subsequent poaching will increase manifold if the highway is diverted away from the national park,” Debo Pradip Bora, joint secretary of the NH 37 4-lane Demand Committee, an umbrella organisation of the people, said.

Although the detour the highway would take was yet to be announced, the national highway authorities said that the four-lane highway would now be diverted from Kaliabor through the existing Kaliabhomora bridge over the Brahmaputra river to Numaligarh via Gohpur. This would involve construction of two extra bridges over the river.

Announcing a series of agitation programmes from November 26, the committee alleged that it would not rest until the national highway authorities went ahead with the earlier plan.

The All Assam Students Union has also offered support to the committee’s demand. “It is only because of human activities along the highway that the park animals are safe from poachers and militants. If the highway is diverted, the park would turn into a haven for anti-social elements,” AASU general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi said.

Gogoi said the economic activities along the highway would also come to a halt in case of a diversion.

The cabinet decision for an alternate alignment of the highway was taken following opposition from the NGOs and park authorities. The opposing sections felt that the highway construction would hamper migration of animals from the park to the adjacent Karbi Anglong hills.

Bora said animal deaths because of road accidents on the national highway were quite negligible compared to poaching. “There are hardly any examples of rhinos and elephants getting killed after being hit by vehicles. Only a few deer die during the floods. Hence, there is no reason to divert the highway,” he said.

In a government statement issued this evening, chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the Centre had not abandoned the project of four-laning from Nagaon to Dibrugarh but modified it by making an alternate alignment bypassing Kaziranga, which will cover 315km from Nagaon to Dibrugarh.