Kaziranga Tourism

After more than 120 years of initiation of rhino conservation measures, Kaziranga National Park continues to remain the most important tourist attraction in the entire Northeast. While it had earned the distinction of being the world’s greatest conservation success story of the twentieth century, its World Heritage Site status has further added to the rhinoland’s international reputation. What is even more interesting is that while the number of none-horned rhinos increased from just about twenty in 1904 to more than 1800 in one hundred years, Kaziranga has, over the decades, also become the sanctuary that has the highest density of tigers in India. Moreover, it is one of the few national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the world that has five big animals, namely the rhino, tiger, elephant, buffalo, and sambar deer. Though the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati gets the highest footfall in twelve months, it is Kaziranga that earns more foreign exchange for Assam, the reason being that it attracts high-end tourists from all over the world. Kaziranga probably also occupies the topmost position in the entire Northeastern region for providing livelihood opportunities to the maximum number of people among all tourist destinations. Of late, efforts made by the government tourism department have also prompted visitors to Kaziranga to look beyond wildlife. Rural life, culture, music, archaeology, religion, tea gardens—several such attractions have been added to the menu for tourists, which in turn has made a twin impact on the local economy; (a) tourists are spending more time and money in and around Kaziranga, and (b) this has increased livelihood opportunities for more people. What is now also imperative is that the tourism authorities, together with the skill development agencies, provide more skills to the rural youth in and around Kaziranga on both banks of the Brahmaputra to cope with the increasing number of visitors. Simultaneously, increased focus is needed on the artisans of the surrounding areas, including product innovation and re-definition, so that the economic benefits of tourism can trickle down to more households. Mounting a stronger and round-the-year social media campaign targeting high-end tourists from different parts of the world will contribute further to Assam’s tourism economy, centred on Kaziranga National Park. It is, after all one place on earth where nature unwinds its pristine form in millions of hues, where wildlife roams fearlessly, where man and nature meet together.