The state of Assam has invoked the National Security Act to keep Pranab Doley in prison for peacefully protesting against Hyatt Group’s planned luxury hotel near Kaziranga National Park in India

Statement Condemning Baseless NSA Charges on Human Rights Defender Pranab Doley and Criminalisation of Indigenous Resistance in Kaziranga

by the Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA)
2 August 2026

The Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA), while welcoming the bail orders for the release of Indigenous leader and human rights defender Pranab Doley, Convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC) and founding member, CNAPA, along with four other Indigenous community leaders – Amit Nag, Brijit Kutum, Rajib Pegu and Bhaskar Saikia of GKLHRPC, strongly condemns and opposes the baseless and illegal slapping of charges under National Security Act (NSA), 1980 on Pranab Doley. We are relieved that Amit Nag, Brijit Kutum, Rajib Pegu and Bhaskar Saikia have been released from Golaghat jail in Assam and have reunited with their comrades, communities and families. Pranab continues to be incarcerated in Golaghat jail due to the fresh NSA charges slapped against him on 30th July, 2026, a day after his bail in the primary case in which he and the other four leaders of GKLHRPC were arrested on 12th and 14th July 2026.

CNAPA continues calling out the continued targeting of Adivasi/Indigenous/Tribal community leaders and political activists resisting the dispossession of Indigenous lands in the Kaziranga region for destructive greenwashing projects like tiger conservation and tourism.

Of Bail Orders and Bail Rejections

While Pranab, Amit, Brijit, Rajib and Bhaskar have got bail in FIR no 108/2026 of Bokakhat Police Station, the anticipatory bail applications of women leaders Geeta Gowala, Mrinali Gowala and Srimoti Kishan were rejected by the District Sessions Judge, Golaghat, Assam. CNAPA is concerned about the rejection of the anticipatory bail of the women leaders, which makes them vulnerable to continuous harassment and threats of arrest at any time. In fact, our worries have doubled with the recent news that the Adivasi women from Inlay Pathar do not even have a ‘safe space’ to protect themselves. They are being visited by senior police officers in the dead of the night with threats, even when they are sitting in front of the police station throughout the day demanding recognition of their ancestral land back, which was illegally grabbed from them without their consent by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation for the construction of luxury Hyatt hotels through its Indian partner Juniper Hotels.

We reiterate that no one should face the trauma that the women leaders are being subjected to relentlessly, and anticipatory bail is a right of the women leaders of Inlay Pathar and Hatikuli facing false and fabricated criminal cases against them.

Assam and the Statecraft of Arm-twisting

CNAPA expresses its shock and anger at the way in which the Assam Government under Himanta Biswa Sharma has subverted justice by serving fresh NSA charges on Pranab Doley even as his bail release papers were being prepared on 29th July 2026. It may be noted that the Assam Government issued a communication for grounds of detention on 30th July 2026 under Section 8 (1) of the NSA, 1980. The notice was then served to Pranab’s father at their ancestral home on 31st July 2026, stating that he is being detained under Section 3 (2) of the NSA, 1980. The sequence of events reveal the deliberate attempt of the Assam Government to wait for his bail to be given in the primary case he was arrested in and then use NSA, almost as an afterthought, to further detain him and thereby demoralise him and Indigenous/Tribal/Adivasi peoples and other marginalized sections of Greater Kaziranga who have been fighting against state-led violence on their lands and bodies through fake encounters, custodial murders, forced disappearances apart from forced evictions and land grabbing in the name of tourism, tiger, elephant and rhino conservation.

This post-bail invoking of the NSA on Pranab Doley clearly points to the fact that the Assam Government subverted the order of a sessions court. During the hearing and even later, the judge repeatedly warned the Investigating Officers of the case to submit the full case diary and not come up with fresh charges after orders were pronounced. While granting bail on 29th July, Additional Sessions Judge N.M. Abdullah Ahmed stated that, “the present dispute arises from deep concern over environmental degradation and its impact on the socio-cultural fabric of the local tea-tribe community.” The bail order further stated, “where environmental conservation intersects with indigenous life, the ordinary machinery of criminal law cannot be used to suppress local concerns. Genuine public peace is achieved not by silencing the affected people, but by listening to them.” It also stated, “it is also necessary to mention here that, in cases involving marginalised groups such as tea-tribe communities, structural inequality prevents the local community from negotiating on equal terms with corporate or state entities. In such a situation, treating an activist or community leader as an ‘external disruptive element’ does not lead to any productive outcome.”

But a reading of the NSA order detaining Pranab Doley under the NSA reveals something totally contradictory to what the Sessions Judge stated. It is clear the Assam Government seems to believe that this preventive detention is in the interest of maintaining the security of the state and public order. And to substantiate this claim, the Commissioner of Home and Political Department, Assam, has made references to Pranab Doley’s international travels which were for making representations on behalf of the people of Kaziranga against the violence and injustices they were facing at different United Nations conventions like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and treaty body meetings of the UN Special Rapporteur on Business and Human Rights Group. In fact, regarding Pranab Doley’s foreign travels, the Sessions Judge had noted that, as an environmental activist, Pranab Doley has travelled to many foreign countries and may have received money for travel and other expenses in that process, and that investigating officers can carry out a “document-based investigation” “without requiring the judicial custody of the accused.” Yet Pranab Doley is in jail under a baseless and fabricated NSA order of detention.

The Assam Government seems to have mastered the statecraft of arm-twisting voices of dissent through false and fabricated criminal cases and prolonged illegal incarceration. It must be emphasised that this has been a pattern with the Assam Police, and they had earlier done the same with farmer leader Akhil Gogoi and now have repeated it with Pranab Doley.

Making a Mockery of National Security

It is pertinent to raise questions around whose interest ‘national security’ has been invoked. The BJP-led Government has been fencing off forests in the name of fortress conservation and selling off Indigenous/Adivasi lands to international luxury hotel groups in the name of tourism and GDP growth, continuing colonial traditions. Here are Pranab Doley and his comrades of Greater Kaziranga who have been questioning the growing structural inequalities, resisting dispossession and demanding recognition of forest and land rights for communities for decades. It is time that across India, people understand the fundamental basis of these Indigenous/Adivasi communities’ struggles and question who is making a mockery of ‘national security’! It is in this context that we want to remind everyone of Bishnu Prasad Rabha’s famous revolutionary verse “Raijye ache duiti patha, Ekti kalo, ekti sadathe, Raijyer jodi mongol chao, Duiti pathar boli dao” [there are two sacrificial goats in the state/one black, the other white;/if you want the best for people/then sacrifice both].

CNAPA therefore calls upon the Government of Assam to:

• Immediately release Pranab Doley and drop arbitrary and baseless NSA charges on him.

• Withdraw all fabricated criminal charges filed against peaceful protesters and human rights defenders in Kaziranga.

• Ensure an independent and impartial inquiry into the allegations of unlawful detention, procedural violations, and the reported use of excessive force during the protests.

• Suspend all construction and land acquisition activities of the Hyatt Luxury Hotels project at Inlay Pathar and Hatikuli.

• Recognise and respect land rights and revenue claims of the affected communities through transparent and lawful processes.

• Immediately stop exclusionary and militarised models of fortress conservation and ensure a democratic, rights-based approach that recognises Adivasi/Tribal/Indigenous peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiverse habitats.

CNAPA, a national coalition of indigenous peoples and forest-dwelling communities, Gram Sabha/Village Council federations, activists, journalists and academics from across India, stands unconditionally with the people of Inlay Pathar and Hatikuli. It condemns the Home and Political Department of the Assam Government, Kaziranga’s Forest Department and Bokakhat Police and Assam’s paramilitary troops’ attempts to intimidate, forcefully evict and illegally acquire lands for luxury Hyatt Hotels in Kaziranga.