Private Cars Allowed to Move Inside Core Areas of Manas National Park, Disturbs Wildlife

Guwahati: In a bizarre development, private vehicles are being allowed to move inside the core areas of the Manas National Park, causing disturbance to the wildlife there.

The development, a blatant violation of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 is allegedly taking place due to pressures from visitors and tourists on the authorities concerned to allow them to go inside the Manas National Park for joyride as well as picnic. The number of private vehicles has increased so much in the recent days that there are literally traffic jams inside the protected area of the park.

NilutpalMahanta, a Zoology researcher at Gauhati University has already started an online campaign to draw the attention of Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal and Forest Minister ParimalSuklabaidya to the issue and demand an immediate ban on movement of private vehicles inside the Manas Park.

According to Mahanta, not a single national park in the State allows entry of private vehicles inside the core zone. "How come Manas be an exception?" he questioned. Heavy crowd of vehicles are seen inside the park at Bansbari Range and the picnic season creates a chaos of vehicles.

Firoz Ahmed, a senior scientist who heads the Tiger Research and Conservation Division at Aaranyak, has expressed grave concern over the issue and said the development would eventually affect the population growth and the ovulation of animals.

The development has also come close on the heels of the latest warning from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that the Manas National Park might again be included in the 'World Heritage List in Danger'.

The Park which is a home to a great variety of wildlife, including many endangered species, such as tiger, pygmy hog, one-horned rhinoceros and elephant, was inscribed in the List of Danger in 1992, seven years after it had entered UNESCO's World Heritage List. In 2011, the UNESCO had removed the 'danger tag' following significant improvement in wildlife conservation in the park.

"The Manas Park faces threats such as encroachment (for farm activity), impact from upstream hydroelectric projects in Bhutan, improper protection and management of grasslands, invasive plants as well as some amount of poaching," the latest conservation assessment report of the IUCN said.

The report further said that the capacity of forest guards to effectively respond to any new threat (because of their inability to evict the encroachers) and insufficient law enforcement remain a cause for concern.

"Although killing of rhinos for their horn has stopped since 2016, illegal killing of other animals has continued," the report said.

Sources, however, alleged that Dispur is ignoring the IUCN's report and many of the government officials have a tendency consider the report as an 'academic exercise'.

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