Kaziranga’s Forgotten Road Shames Assam’s ‘Development’

In the heart of one of Assam’s most vaunted constituencies, a broken road slices through not just land—but through the dignity and patience of the people who live here.

For the residents of Ward No. 8 under Paschim Kaziranga Gaon Panchayat, this road is not a lifeline. It is a curse they must endure every single day.

Despite repeated appeals by the locals and even multiple submissions by Bokakhat MLA and Assam Cabinet Minister Atul Bora himself, the road continues to remain a symbol of state apathy. A stretch long disintegrated, never rebuilt, and now almost washed away with every seasonal rain. When even a brief downpour causes torrents from Karbi Anglong hills to flood the path, the already-broken road becomes an unpassable death trap.
People here don’t walk anymore—they wade. Women carry infants across makeshift bridges made of logs.

Children brave the mud and the muck on their way to school, their uniforms soaked before they reach the gates. Patients needing urgent care are either carried across or forced to wait for the waters to recede. This isn’t just inconvenience—it is humiliation.

This road has reduced life to a dangerous balancing act.

Ironically, it is this same road that some tourists use en route to Kaziranga’s less-traveled hinterlands. Some say they come not just to visit the national park, but to “experience rural struggle.” The people here must silently bear the indignity of being reduced to a spectacle in their own land.

And all the while, the government thumps its chest about "development."

Bokakhat is often touted as one of Assam’s most developed constituencies. Minister Atul Bora has proudly claimed this in public forums, but here in his very own constituency, the people of Paschim Kaziranga feel betrayed. They say they haven’t seen their elected representative even once outside of election season. Not in five years. Not in ten.

One villager puts it plainly: “We’ve voted, we’ve pleaded, we’ve waited. Now we just suffer.”

This isn't just about a road anymore. It's about abandonment. It’s about the erosion of public trust. It’s about thousands of voices buried under layers of political silence and monsoon mud.

So the question remains—how long will Bokakhat bleed in silence? When will development reach the very soil where promises were made and then forgotten?

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