Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, speaking at Khanapara in Assam on Friday, delivered an hour-long Independence Day address but remained silent on the pressing wildlife and environmental crises unfolding across the state.
Sarma’s speech focused on demographic and identity concerns but made no mention of the escalating human–wildlife conflict, renewed international poaching threats, shrinking wetlands, drying river stretches, or deforestation.
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“When the state’s forests are vanishing and wetlands are dying, silence from the top only deepens the crisis,” said an NGO activist from Nagaon.
Widely covered for its political tone, the speech outlined identity safeguards and development schemes but lacked concrete commitments to wildlife protection, wetland restoration, or forest conservation.
“It felt like nature had been left out of the Independence Day vision entirely,” remarked a Guwahati-based environmental researcher.
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Across districts, human–elephant conflict continues to rise. Recent photographs show elephants injured or wandering into villages as their habitats shrink. Experts link the crisis to fragmented corridors caused by agriculture, infrastructure, and tree loss.
“Elephants aren’t invading our villages; we’ve invaded their homes,” noted a conservation volunteer in Goalpara.
Poaching remains another flashpoint. Under ‘Operation Falcon’, authorities busted six major rhino-poaching gangs with cross-border links via Myanmar, arresting dozens. While enforcement is praised, conservationists caution that “without community vigilance and cross-border cooperation, the poachers will always return.”
Shrinking wetlands—from Majuli’s beels to smaller floodplain lakes—are disrupting fisheries and ferry routes. Conservationists blame embankments, siltation, and altered rainfall patterns.
“A dead wetland means dead livelihoods,” warned a fisher leader in Lakhimpur.
Deforestation in Karbi Anglong and adjoining areas continues, eroding wildlife corridors and threatening species that require continuous forest cover.
“Even a 2% loss here has devastating effects,” explained a forestry researcher.
Early-warning and patrol systems for wildlife conflict, stronger anti-trafficking intelligence, a full wetland restoration program, reforestation of mapped corridors, and river-basin management for the Brahmaputra—“these aren’t luxuries, they’re survival measures,” said an environmental policy analyst in Jorhat.
Although Operation Falcon’s successes have reduced poaching in 2025, analysts stress that enforcement must be paired with long-term funding and ecological planning.
“You can’t arrest your way out of habitat loss,” a Kaziranga ranger said bluntly.
Conservationists agree the CM missed an opportunity to put ecological security at the core of Assam’s future.
“If we ignore nature now, it will ignore us later—and the cost will be unbearable,” warned a senior activist in Digboi.