📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Tisha Mukherjee
Politics
Assam Urges Centre to Shrink Kaziranga ESZ from 10km to 1km, Environmentalists Sound Alarm
✍️ CNBC TV18
🗓 12 Aug 2026, 10:03 AM
👁 4
The Assam government plans to request the central government to reduce the Environmental Sensitive Zone around Kaziranga National Park from 10 km to 1 km, a move that has drawn criticism from environmental groups.
Assam’s government has announced its intention to petition the central government to trim the Environmental Sensitive Zone (ESZ) surrounding Kaziranga National Park from the current 10‑kilometre buffer to just 1 kilometre.
The proposal, aimed at easing land‑use restrictions and encouraging development projects near the park, was unveiled by the state’s officials in a recent press briefing.
Environmentalists and wildlife conservation groups have warned that such a drastic reduction could jeopardise the park’s fragile ecosystem, increase human‑wildlife conflict, and undermine the protection of the region’s iconic one‑horned rhinoceros.
Assam will submit a formal request to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while the central government’s response remains pending. The issue is expected to spark a debate between development priorities and conservation imperatives.
The proposal, aimed at easing land‑use restrictions and encouraging development projects near the park, was unveiled by the state’s officials in a recent press briefing.
Environmentalists and wildlife conservation groups have warned that such a drastic reduction could jeopardise the park’s fragile ecosystem, increase human‑wildlife conflict, and undermine the protection of the region’s iconic one‑horned rhinoceros.
Assam will submit a formal request to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while the central government’s response remains pending. The issue is expected to spark a debate between development priorities and conservation imperatives.