GUWAHATI: Kaziranga National Park, which houses the Great Indian Rhinoceros, will be reopened from October 1 for the 2024-25 season of wildlife tourism, according to the declaration of the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division. From October 1, visitors will get access to wildlife safaris inside the park.
The park has already been closed for four months during the monsoon-when it is hazardous to venture even near the place due to heavy rainfall and floods. Some effects of the monsoon are still lingering, but Kaziranga will still be ready to host tourists in just three weeks.
Kaziranga National Park is based in India, but it is so famous for its diversified flora and fauna. It is also the abode to "Big Five", which includes the Indian one-horned rhinoceros, royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer. In fact, nearly 70% of India's rhino population and more than a hundred Bengal tigers are found to inhabit the Kaziranga forests.
Now that the date of reopening for Kaziranga National Park in 2024 has been declared, Sonali Ghosh, a field director of the park, said: "since the restoration post-monsoon, the forest authority has more emphasized improvement in visitor experience and safety.".
She mentioned that only three sites of Kaziranga would be opened: the south-central Kohara region, the western Bagori region, and the Burapahar region. She further clarified that this year, the time and shifts to Kaziranga tiger safaris were going to remain the same as previous years, at 7:30 AM and 1:30 PM.
Kaziranga National Park is a national park located in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam, India. This park houses two-thirds of the world's Indian rhinoceroses and has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Kaziranga counts 2,613 rhinos against a census conducted during March 2018 by the Assam Forest Department and a number of wildlife NGOs. This includes 1,641 adult rhinos (642 males, 793 females, and 206 of unknown sex), 387 subadults (116 males, 149 females, and 122 of unknown sex), and 385 calves.
Kaziranga is vast land covered by tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical forests, crossed by four major rivers, of which the Brahmaputra is one.
The park has a vast number of small water bodies. Kaziranga has been the inspiration for many books, songs, and documentaries. It has been 100 years since its inception in 2005 when Kaziranga was declared as a reserve forest back in 1905.
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