Gogoi seeks answers on missing Panbari corridor in Kaziranga gazette
Gaurav Gogoi questions Assam government over removal of a 2022 gazette notification that omitted the Panbari wildlife corridor.
Assam Congress president and MP Gaurav Gogoi has demanded transparency from the state government over the removal of a 2022 gazette notification concerning Kaziranga National Park's animal corridors from the official website of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department.
In a post on X, Gogoi alleged that the uploaded version of the notification was incomplete. He claimed that while the full document on the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve's website runs from pages 1,328 to 1,455, the version on the state portal stopped at page 1,426. This omission, he said, covered 29 pages detailing the Panbari corridor.
Gogoi linked the missing pages to reports of rare earth element deposits in the Panbari-Geleki belt, which lies close to the park. He also questioned why the incomplete notification remained online for four years and was taken down only after it drew attention.
The 2022 notification, issued on April 1, identified nine wildlife corridors connecting Kaziranga to the Karbi Anglong hills, which serve as a refuge for animals during floods. The corridors are Amguri, Bagori, Chirang, Deosur, Haldhibari, Harmati, Hatidandi, Kanchanjuri, and Panbari.
While the notification's opening section referenced all nine corridors, the online version contained detailed descriptions and maps for only eight, with Panbari missing. The omission is significant because the Panbari corridor passes through Methoni Tea Estate, which was acquired by RCP Solutions and Services Pvt Ltd, a Reliance Industries subsidiary, in 2022.
Gogoi also criticised the delay in notifying the nine corridors, noting that the Supreme Court-constituted Central Empowered Committee has sought action on them for years. He further accused the government of signing MoUs for luxury hotels near the park, remaining indifferent to illegal mining, and detaining activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act for opposing a hotel project on indigenous farmers' land.
An official response to the allegations was awaited at the time of writing.