Assam Government Encroaches Into a World Heritage Site in India’s Northeast

Por Rajeev Bhattacharyya — The Diplomat

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The encroached area is part of Manas National Park’s core tiger and Bengal florican habitats.

Manas National Park in Mathanguri, India.

Manas National Park in the northeast Indian state of Assam is in danger. The Assam government, which should be protecting this 1,176-acre World Heritage Site, has encroached on the park for several years.

Originally part of the North Kamrup Reserve Forest, the land under contention, which is spread over 9.3 sq km, was given on a 30-year lease to the Indian government for setting up a seed farm. After the lease expired in 2001, the area became part of the Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve, the Assam forest department said in a letter to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) that governs this region.

In the letter, the Assam forest department pointed out that the BTC had leased the encroached land for cultivation. Sources claimed that local farmers are engaged in farming in the area, which is officially not permitted inside a wildlife sanctuary, national park or World Heritage Site. The letter made a case for its handover to the forest department. The forest department also urged the Assam government to convince the BTC to return the encroached area to the Assam forest department

The area that has been allegedly encroached by local farmers with the BTC’s consent is part of the Manas National Park’s core tiger and Bengal florican habitats. This falls in the Bhuyanpara Range of the park, which is also where the erstwhile government-owned Kokilabari Seed Farm was located.

Concerned about the encroachment and its devastating impact on the park, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has also been reminding the Assam government to initiate action over the past few years.

In a communique dated July 30, 2026, which was also posted on social media, the NTCA asked the chief secretary of the Assam government to “intervene” and facilitate the “handing over” of the encroached area to the Manas Tiger Reserve authorities. It also reminded the government that a directive on the issue had been sent on June 11, but the authority was “not aware about the progress made in the matter so far.”

Manas National Park was designated as a reserve forest in 1907 and declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1928. In 1973, it became India’s first tiger reserve. Spread across an area of 2,837 sq km, the park was the largest in the country. In 2004, the park secured another feather in its cap when BirdLife International, a global partnership of bird conservation organizations, identified it as an Important Bird Area. UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1985. “Manas has exceptional importance within the Indian sub-continent’s protected areas, as one of the most significant remaining natural areas in the region, where sizeable populations of a large number of threatened species continue to survive,” UNESCO observed.

Manas faced several challenges in the 1980s and 1990s. It was adversely impacted by the powerful insurgency that swept Assam in the late 1980s. With a large area of the park becoming a no-go zone for officials, environmental activists and tourists, conservation efforts suffered a big blow.

Poaching of the one-horned rhino also grew in this period. The number of rhinos reportedly dwindled from around 100 in the late 1980s to zero by the time peace returned to the region in the mid-2000s. Wildlife researcher Anwaruddin Choudhury estimated in 1996 that over 80 percent of the park’s large mammals had also been decimated. In 1992, UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention declared that Manas was “in danger.”

A former official of the forest department told The Diplomat that Assam’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government was apprehensive of a “backlash” from the BTC if the encroachment is cleared from the park. The Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which rules the council, is also an ally in the BJP-led coalition government in Assam.

Meanwhile, the Gauhati High Court has issued orders to the Assam government and the BTC to prevent further encroachment in the park after activist Rohit Choudhury filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

The encroachment of national parks lays bare the lackadaisical approach of the Assam government towards the conservation of forests and wildlife in the country. The government evicted illegal settlers from the World Heritage Site of Kaziranga National Park, also in Assam, in 2016, only after the Gauhati High Court intervened and issued orders.

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