Sentinel Digital Desk
Manas National Park is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve of Assam.
Located in the Himalayan foothills, it is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
Manas is also famous for its population of the wild water buffalo.
The name of the park originated from the Manas River, which is named after the serpent goddess Manasa.
The Manas river is a major tributary of Brahmaputra River, which passes through the heart of the National Park.
The Manas river also serves as an international border dividing India and Bhutan.
The Park was declared a sanctuary on 1 October, 1928 with an area of 360 square kilometres.
Prior to the declaration of the sanctuary, it was a reserved forest called Manas R.F. and North Kamrup R.F.
It was used by the Cooch Behar royal family and Raja of Gauripur as a hunting reserve.
It was declared a World Heritage site in December 1985 by UNESCO.
In 1992, UNESCO declared it as a world heritage site in danger due to heavy poaching and terrorist activities.
There is only one forest village, Pagrang, at the core of the national park.
The minimum temperature is around 15 °C and the maximum temperature is around 37 °C.
The sanctuary has recorded 55 species of mammals, 380 species of birds, 50 of reptiles, and 3 species of amphibians.
The park remains closed to visitors from June to September.
The ideal time to visit is between November and April, which guarantees more wildlife spotting.
Manas is about 150 km away from Guwahati. It takes about 5 hours to reach there by road
Other than going for the safaris, you can do river rafting, see many tea gardens and local Bodo villages.
Camps, lodges and cottages are available for stay.