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Project update
- January 2006
Temporary victory
for DSWF-supported Aaranyak in Kaziranga National Park
Following a letter of complaint written
by Aaranyak biodiversity conservation organisation, the Indian
government have ordered the Assam forest department to rescind
their permission for the Mikir Chang quarry to undertake blasting
operations within the no-development zone of India's oldest national
park.
The company had originally been given permission
to carry out stone-quarrying even though it is located just 9
kms from the boundary of the park. A no-development buffer zone
of 15 kms radius had been set up in 1996 to prevent pollution
in the 3,270 square kilometre park which, together with the adjacent
Karbi Anglong district, was officially declared Assam's fourth
elephant reserve on April 17, 2003.
The letter of complaint focused on the threat
to elephants posed by the quarrying operation affecting animals
moving within the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong corridor. Daily blasting
within the reserve has prevented elephants from moving through
the area, leaving them stranded and hungry in forests between
Kaziranga National Park and new settlements near the Numaligarh
refinery area. This, in turn, has exacerbated human-elephant conflicts
in the area, where ten people have been killed by elephants in
the last year.
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