In September this year the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a strong judgment which shut down several stone crushers, brick kilns, tea estates and other small-scale units operating in the No Development Zone (NDZ) around the famous Kaziranga National Park in Assam. This was in response to an application filed before the NGT pointing out that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had allowed these units to continue functioning in complete violation of its own orders declaring Kaziranga National Park an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in 1996.Here is a bit of background to the issue. In. . .