Kaziranga National Park to partially reopen on Oct 21. Check details here

Golaghat: Kaziranga National Park would re-open from October 21. The Park was shut since the COVID lockdown announced in March. The Park authorities have decided to partially reopen the Park. Some changes have been made to the popular rides. Instead of the elephant rides and safaris, only jeep safaris would be available at 50 per cent capacity.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal would be present at the re-opening ceremony on October 21.

A massive cleaning drive is underway. It is not just the Park authorities who are conducting the drive but people from resorts too are lending a hand in sprucing up the Park before it reopens next week. Park officials and local businesses are hoping to welcome a large number of visitors.

"We clean up the Park every year before reopening post the floods, but this time the timings for closure and reopening have been very different and we are keeping an extra eye on the cleanliness due to COVID. All care is being taken," a staff of one of the resorts who took part in the cleanliness drive said.

The Park reopens after seeing a lot of devastation due to floods. So far four floods have hit the Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the popular one-horned rhino.

"The water is still receding. Some parts of the Park is still not ready. We are opening only those parts which are ready for visitors. It is only post November 1, we think the entire Park would be ready to be re-opened," Assistant Conservator of Forest, Perisoodan said.

Almost 95 percent of the Park was underwater and as per Assam Government data, 132 animals died due to floods. This includes 14 rhinos, 5 wild buffaloes, 8 wild boars, 2 swamp deer, 98 hog deer, 1 sambar, 3 porcupines, and 1 python.

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