Sentinel Digital Desk
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) is one of the tourist hotspots of Assam and home to the endangered one-horned rhino.
Located at the edge of the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspots, Golaghat and Nagaon districts.
Spread over a 430 square kilometre area that consists of elephant-grass meadows, swampy lagoons and dense forest.
KNPTR has over 2,413 Indian one-horned rhinoceros (approx. 2/3 of their total world population).
Tiger's population has also increased in Kaziranga. It was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006.
Most serious threat to rhinos still comes from poachers, which is why Kaziranga has nearly 600 guards posted on field.
History of Kaziranga can be tracked back to 1904, when Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, the wife of Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon of Kedleston visited India.
After failing to see a single rhinoceros, for which that area was renowned, Mary Curzon asked her husband to take urgent measures.
On 1st June, 1905, the Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest was created with an area of 232 sq km.
In 1908, Kaziranga was designated as a Reserve Forest
In 1916, it was redesignated as "Kaziranga Game Sanctuary" and remained so till 1938. • In 1938, hunting was prohibited and visitors were permitted to enter the park.
The Kaziranga Game Sanctuary was renamed Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950 by P.D. Strachey, a forest conservationist.
In 1954, the government of Assam passed the Assam (Rhinoceros) Bill, which imposed heavy penalties for rhinoceros poaching.
The state government passed the Assam National Park Act of 1968, declaring Kaziranga a designated national park.
Kaziranga park was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 1985.
The park is also home to other threatened species including wild elephants, Asiatic wild water buffalo, hog deer, barasinghs, swamp deer, elk-like sambars and hundreds of wild hogs.
It is also an important area for migratory birds like lesser, white-fronted goose, ferruginous duck, Baer's pochard duck and many more.
There are jeep safaris. You can sign up for an elephant safari too. (These are subject to change due to COVID protocol).
The region receives heavy rain during June to September months, so these months every year park remains closed.
There are buses to Kaziranga from Guwahati, Jorhat, Nawgaon, Dibrugarh, Tezpur or Tinsukia.
You can stay there at the peaceful and rustic style Nature Hunt Eco Camps, Chang Ghar (houses made of bamboo & thatch on stilts) or the resorts and Assam government’s circuit house.