Supreme Court panel pulls up Assam Government for inaction on mining near Kaziranga

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The latest development follows a June 15 RTI application, seeking details of compliance with the CEC’s directions to the Assam Chief Secretary on May 30, 2025. Representational file image. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Ahead of a controversy over a plan to reduce the Eco-Sensitive Zone of Kaziranga National Park, a Supreme Court-constituted panel has pulled up the Assam government over its handling of mining on the southern boundary of the one-horned rhino habitat.

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) said that the government did not address the mining issue in and around the Parkup Pahar Range, a declared wildlife sanctuary and vital ecological corridor, with the seriousness it deserves.

The latest development follows a June 15 RTI (Right to Information) application filed by Rohit Choudhury, a Golaghat district-based environmental activist, seeking details of compliance with the CEC’s directions to the Assam Chief Secretary on May 30, 2025.

Mr. Choudhury sought the comprehensive Watershed Drainage Analysis Report that was to identify all areas draining into Kaziranga, along with quarterly status reports on action taken against reported violations.

The CEC’s response to the RTI on July 17 states that it did not receive the comprehensive Watershed Drainage Analysis Report. It also said the quarterly status reports have been attached, but the response does not indicate that the watershed exercise the CEC ordered was completed.

The CEC had fixed October 2025 as the deadline for submitting the watershed report.

The issue predates the RTI. In its May 30, 2025, report on “Application NO.1592 of 2024”, the CEC recorded allegations of renewed mining in Parkup Pahar despite the Supreme Court’s April 12, 2019, order restraining all mining and related activities along the southern boundary of Kaziranga and throughout the catchments of rivers and streams originating in the Karbi Anglong hills and flowing into the park.

The same order prohibited new construction on private lands forming part of nine identified animal corridors.

On March 3, three months before Mr. Choudhury’s RTI plea, the CEC wrote to the Assam Chief Secretary, noting that mining and related activities have been going on “in some way on one pretext or the other”, and that the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) was not presenting a holistic picture to the courts.

The KAAC administers Karbi Anglong, the district that forms Kaziranga’s southern boundary. The hills of this district serve as a shelter whenever Kaziranga is flooded beyond the level its animals can withstand.

“It has been observed time and again that the issue has not been addressed with the seriousness it deserves.