- Novanita Sharma
Spring is perceptibly the most colourful, and poetic season in Assam, but this year it resonates to a completely different public mood all over. Rush of adrenalin, political high drama, war of words across all generations, tussles among the media houses, and the undeniably high voltage election campaigns has given an unusual twist to the bohag spirit of Assamese people. While India awaits to see the fate of assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerela, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry in 2026, the state bound campaigning mega show in the past couple of days has infused an unavoidable political mood in Assam, where the 2,49,58,139 voters will decide the destiny of the contestants who aspire to secure their place among the 126 seats of Assam legislative assembly in the single-phase assembly election scheduled to be held on 9th April 2026. Everyone in Assam is caught up in this intense political mega event, every citizen is contemplating on the future of Assam while deducing the pros and cons related to the contestants, the political parties, and most importantly on the election manifestos of the contesting parties which are taking part in this democratic process.
In a state like Assam, the gateway to India’s green capital, the political parties and the assertions of the contesting people’s representatives fall short to meet the electorate expectations when their political agendas and manifestos don’t mention about future action plan, and goals to meet the critical requirements of ecological safety, forest protection, and biodiversity conservation in the region. Assam is part of the global network of biodiversity hotspots, apart from being an indispensable part of India’s rich repository of flora, fauna, and natural ecosystems which continue to face serious threats of destruction due to anthropogenic pressures, and other ecological factors. The Political leaders in Assam are expected to hon the shoes of environment leaders who will pave the path of sustainable growth and development of the state, with their commitment to protect the biodiversity through preservation of the natural forests, wetlands, and conservation of flora, fauna, and wildlife. The natural resources of our state like our existing natural forests, wetlands, wildlife, and the biodiversity constitute the most valuable assets for Assam, which needs protection under able political leadership to carve the road for true progress of Assam in future.
The incumbent state government of Assam under the leadership of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma have depicted an optimistic picture of green governance in the past few years; large tracts of pristine natural forests of Assam has been protected as wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Protected areas like the Dihing Patkai National Park, the Raimona National Park, the Sikhna Jwhwlao National Park, along with the proposed wildlife sanctuaries like Poba Wildlife Sanctuary, Ajagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Pancharatna Wildlife Sanctuary rings hope of a positive political will of this government for preservation of the biodiversity rich natural forests across Assam. Apart from this, the critically debated eviction drive in Assam to reclaim the forestlands, grazing lands, and wetlands from illegal encroachments by the state government in 2025 came as the long-awaited political intervention to deal with the age-old problem of forest land encroachment by illegal migrant populations in Assam. This bold political move by the Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma led government came as a turn of ecological justice in Assam, after 78 years of political silence on destruction, displacement, and obliteration of our forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other natural habitats due to illegal encroachments.
It is good for the people of Assam to remember that our state has lost the largest area of forest cover among all the Northeastern states to forest encroachments since the Independence of India, which attributes to figures like 3,620.9sqkm area of forest land under encroachment until March 2024. The problem of forest encroachment has clearly emerged as the topmost challenging environment issues in Assam. While ecological problems like pollution, solid waste management, and artificial urban flooding pose as serious challenges for all Indians, the loss of forest cover and threats to our biodiversity is the biggest environment problem for Assam. With a total recorded forest area of 26,832 sqkm, accounting for 34.21% of its geographical area, Assam is at a crucial stage regarding forest conservation. Hence, the people of Assam have an important role to play, to act as responsible electorate while voting for political leadership which commits to safeguard the forests and biodiversity of Assam.
The issues related to biodiversity conservation, forest preservation, wildlife conservation are the major environment causes for Assam, and hence, we need political leaders who will support the biodiversity conservation movement of Assam through their actions and policies. People’s leaders like Dr. Ranoj Pegu, the education minister of Assam inspires this spirit of leadership for the future political aspirants of Assam. Dr. Ranoj Pegu, who is a conservationist at heart has supported the spread of green consciousness among the young students across the length and breadth of Assam through distribution of prakriti sahitya based books in a wide network of government run schools across different districts of Assam. His commitment to the cause of wildlife conservation and forest preservation has driven a wide section of people from the grassroots of Assam to connect with community-based conservation initiatives like the Dulung Subansiri Prakriti Mahotsav, and Poba Barxaranya Prakriti Mahotsav. We look upon to find political leaders who will walk an extra mile to support the biodiversity conservation movement of Assam as part of their social responsibility. This requires an empowered participation of the electorate who will elect their representatives in the forth coming assembly polls across Assam. We must look up at the poll manifestos of the contesting political parties to ascertain the environment commitments of the contestants.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll manifesto for Assam elections 2026 titled ‘Sankalpa Patra’, released on 31st March 2026 in Guwahati connects the people with an inclusive electoral commitment on a wide range of social, economic, and cultural aspects relevant to the region, but most significantly, this poll manifesto put forth an evolved electorate commitment related to forest preservation and biodiversity conservation. It makes special mention of four points regarding environment and biodiversity conservation where the party assures the enforcement of ‘Axom Bon Niti 2.0’ for effective conservation of forest lands, reforestation, and biodiversity conservation in Assam. It also affirms restoration of fragmented wildlife habitats and pragmatic mitigation of man-Elephant conflicts in Assam. This Assam Poll Manifesto in 2026 connects everyone with the palpable socio-political impact of the four decades long biodiversity conservation movement, which has been driven by the civil society and the nature loving people of Assam under the dedicated leadership of environment activists’ groups like Nature’s Beckon. This also reflects the political commitment of Bharatiya Janata Party towards the people’s sentiments for the biodiversity conservation movement of Assam, and the environment concerns which are crucial for the ecological, and the economic security of Assam and the rest of Northeast India. This commitment towards the major environment causes of Assam has been rarely found among the other political factions so far.
The ‘Sankalpa Patra’ brings hope to the people of Assam, and especially the electoral commitment to uphold the spirit of biodiversity conservation, forest preservation, and restoration of wild habitats in Assam marks the rising environment consciousness in the new-age Indian electoral politics. Biodiversity conservation is a people’s movement in Assam, and the challenges to protect of our forest lands, preservation of our existing natural forests, and conservation of biodiversity are the most important environment issues for the future generations of Assam. Hence the people’s representatives and political parties who commit to protect the natural forests, and biodiversity of Assam are the deserving future leaders and policy makers of the state. Pragya, a socio-cultural organisation, working for youth empowerment in Assam have aptly reflected this public psyche of Assamese people in their civil society appeal where they stated that the issue of nature conservation must be listed as a major political agenda in the Assam assembly election in 2026, and the citizens should be thoughtful in electing the political party who can protect the wildlife, and natural environment of Assam. In the world where environment issues have been widely considered as a left-wing agenda, the Assam assembly election 2026 seem to prove it wrong. While, all other political parties contesting for this assembly election has ignored the environment concerns of Assam in their election manifestos, the Bharatiya Janata Party has paved the road for an emerging right-wing environment-consciousness based nationalism in Assam.
Soumyadeep Datta, the Director of Nature’s Beckon and a renowned environment activist, writer from Assam speaks regarding the ‘Sankalpa Patra, the BJP manifesto for Assam polls 2026’, “since Assam has seen a vibrant and flourishing nature conservation movement for over several decades now, we were expecting that all the political parties will give weightage to the issues of wildlife conservation, nature conservation, forest preservation, and biodiversity conservation. But practically we saw the issue of nature conservation, wildlife conservation, and biodiversity conservation could find an important place only in the poll manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party. We are happy to welcome this approach, while remaining hopeful that all the other political parties will provide due importance to these nature-conservation issues in Assam.”
The people of Assam, including the young minds and the elderly, from across all age groups, socio-economic and educational sections of our society, who fought for years to protect the rainforests of Assam, who consistently worked hard along with the authority to curb rhino poaching in the state, whose trailblazing community movements led to the protection of the entire Golden Langur habitats in western Assam, and many rare species of flora and fauna in different parts of the state must take a deeper look at the poll manifestos of all contesting parties, and comprehend the contribution of the contestants towards biodiversity conservation to choose the befitting future people’s representatives for Assam. The biodiversity conservation movement of Assam, which began in late 1970s under the visionary leadership and youthful energy of conservationists like Soumyadeep Datta epitomise one of India’s most dynamically growing nature-conservation movements of the 21st century that has integrated the ethos of forest protection and biodiversity conservation in the social fabric of Assam. This four decades of social change conjures the democratic responsibility of the people of Assam to vote as an environment savvy, and empowered electorate, to find future leaders who are committed to save the forests and biodiversity of Assam, and carve the ideal path for sustainable growth and progress in future.