Assam Congress president and MP Gaurav Gogoi on Monday (September 7, 2026) questioned why the Assam government has removed an allegedly incomplete 2022 gazette notification on Kaziranga National Park’s animal corridors from its official website.
“There needs to be complete transparency on why an incomplete notification was uploaded on the government’s portal and went unrectified for four years, and why it was pulled down the moment it drew attention. The State Congress president pointed out that the Supreme Court-constituted Central Empowered Committee has been seeking action on all nine corridors for years. “This is not an isolated lapse. Congress, local organisations, and green activists also sniffed a connection between Panbari’s omission from the gazette notification and reports of rare earth element deposits in the Panbari-Geleki area of Karbi Anglong. The area is close to Kaziranga National Park.
“The full notification on the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve’s website spans pages 1,328 to 1,455. The version published on the State portal stopped at page 1,426, omitting the 29 pages covering the Panbari corridor. Issued on April 1, 2022, the gazette notification followed the recommendations of a government-appointed committee. Constituted on May 4, 2019, to identify and delineate the animal corridors between Kaziranga and Karbi Anglong, the panel submitted its report on August 28, 2019.
In an X post, he said that the Panbari Wildlife Corridor was missing from the version of the gazette notification uploaded on the government’s (Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department) portal. This coincides with reports of rare earth element deposits in the same belt,” Mr Gogoi said. The Assam government should also answer for the delay in notifying the nine crucial animal corridors,” he said. The government signs MoUs (memoranda of understanding) for luxury hotels beside the park, stays indifferent to illegal mining, and arrests the activist who dares to be critical,” Mr Gogoi said, referring to the detention of land rights activist Pranab Doley under the National Security Act for opposing a luxury hotel project on the paddy fields of indigenous farmers at Kaziranga.
