Assam forest chief says no rules violated for Sadhguru, CM Kaziranga night-time safari

The Assam Forest Department stated on Monday that the Saturday night jeep safari of Sadhguru of Isha Foundation, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and others, inside Kaziranga National Park was not in violation of rules, as they were the department’s invited guests.

“In the Wildlife Protection Act, there are provisions under which the chief wildlife warden can allow someone to visit the park. There is no question of day or night. We had invited Sadhguru, our CM and other officials to visit the park and so the jeep safari was done as per the provision,” Assam’s Chief Wildlife warden M K Yadava told local television channels in Assam on Monday.

Also Read | Complaint against Sadhguru, Assam CM for jeep safari in Kaziranga National Park

Yadava made the clarification a day after two activists, living near Kaziranga, had lodged a police complaint alleging that the jeep safari inside the park at night was in violation of the provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and sought police action.

The chief wildlife warden was also quick to point out this advantage was not for common tourists. “Don’t make the comparison between tourists and our guests. We even invite people for official work and allow them to go inside at night,” Yadava said.

Chief Minister Sarma also said that there was no violation of the norms as the chief wildlife warden can allow someone to visit the park even at 2 am.

The complaint was lodged at Bokakhat police station in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district by Soneswar Narah of Morongial Gaon and Prabin Pegu, a resident of Balijan Adarsha Mishing Gaon in Golaghat. “The law should be equal for all,” Narah and Pegu, said in the complaint.

Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, spread across 1,300 sq km area, is a tourist attraction and is the biggest home for the greater one-horned rhinoceros. The park has 2,613 rhinos at present. The park, however, remained closed for tourists since May, due the monsoon.

Sadhguru addressed Assam ministers, MLAs, bureaucrats and others on Saturday at a resort near the tiger reserve during a “chintan shivir” organised by the BJP-led Assam government.