They are mostly outside the core area of the world heritage site, but forest officials fear they might one day invade the core area too. Local people said they belonged to Bangladeshi infiltrators who take advantage of lax border vigil and lax administration to sneak in and settle in the forest area.
Forest officials allege all of them enjoy political patronage on electoral considerations. ''As the government keeps mum on the illegal settlement, the forest authorities are hesitant in evicting the settlers,'' Junu Brahma, Dy Director, Tourism, Kaziranga forest, said.
Brahma said these structures were an impediment to the free movement of animals. An official, who wants to remain anonymous, said, ''The illegal settlers as well as villagers living in the periphery of the forest, specially in Karbi Anglong district, help as guides to poachers in killing the prized one-horned rhinos.''
''This is a problem waiting to assume serious proportions unless the government steps in,'' Brahma said. However, the state's forest minister, Rockybul Hussain, recently told the Assembly that the government had taken adequate measures to prevent villagers from helping the poachers.
He, however, at the same time noted that in certain cases the villagers had been found to have helped forest authorities apprehend the poachers who are part of an international racket in the sale of rhino horns which are a craze in China and some other far-east countries. The rhino horn fetches astronomical sums in the world market and this is the reason why poachers go desperate to kill the endangered animals, Brahma said.
As many as 18 rhinos were killed in 2008 and 14 in 2009. And between 1980 and 1997 as many as 552 rhinos were killed, forest officials said. Another problem faced by the forest authorities in guarding the forest is the inadequate strength of forest guards which is just 450 or so at present.
A proposal to increase the number of border guards has been hanging fire for a long time, Brahma said. Situated in the flood plains of the Brahmaputra river system, the annual flood in the Brahmaputra is a boon for the Kaziranga forest as it makes the vital silt deposits, but it is a bane too. The erosion caused by the river has emerged as a big devil in terms of shrinkage of the forest area.