And for Kaziranga too!

Yes, Kaziranga has another reason to rejoice and celebrate. Kaziranga has just completed fifty glorious years as a national park. While Kaziranga had celebrated one hundred years of rhino conservation way back in 2005, it was on February 11, 1974, that it was officially declared a National Park, making the National Park status fifty years old. The recognition continued to grow as it received the UNESCO World Heritage Site title in 1985. What once spanned 425 square kilometres has now expanded to 1039 square kilometres, encompassing ten annexed areas. This journey illustrates Kaziranga’s commitment to conservation and its remarkable transformation into a symbol of wildlife preservation. Strategically located in the heart of Assam with the mighty Brahmaputra flowing through it, Kaziranga National Park not only provides an ideal habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species, including the highly endangered one-horned rhinoceros, but is also the most important international tourist attraction in the entire Northeastern region. Moreover, Kaziranga is one of the few national parks in the world that has five ‘big’ animals, these being the rhino, tiger, buffalo, elephant, and sambar deer. Looking back, one finds that while British officers and tea planters in the colonial era had indulged in killing rhinos for fun by considering it a ‘game’ in the typical colonial mindset and style, it was one Bapiram Hazarika, popularly remembered as Nigona Shikari, a local person, who had impressed upon Lady Curzon to convince her husband Lord Curzon to take urgent steps to protect the rhino. Thus, when Kaziranga in 2004 celebrated one hundred years of rhino conservation, the Government of Assam honoured two special persons: a grandson of Nigona Shikari and a grandson of Lady Curzon. Kaziranga is the pride of Assam.