Kaziranga parks reopen for visitors

The 858-sq km national park had witnessed a record 1,25,911 tourists during 2013-14, of whom 6922 were foreign tourists.

Kaziranga National Park, home to the highest number of great one-horned rhinoceros, reopened for visitors on Saturday after a gap of six months, with the first batch of tourists to avail the elephant safari comprising visitors from Australia, the US and UK.

While state forest and environment minister Rakibul Hussain flagged off the first group of 30 tourists on 13 elephants at the Kohora range, 19 other elephants took 40 tourists into the Bagori range. Later in the, tourists also availed jeep safari, though through a limited route.

“The first day’s tourists could see nearly two dozen rhinos including several calves, while visitors also spotted herds of swamp deer, hog deer, water buffalo, elephants, langur, wild boar and birds,” said Park director MK Yadava.

The 858-sq km national park also has the highest density of Royal Bengal tigers in the world, but spotting a tiger was not easy on the first day on Saturday. The last census had put Kaziranga’s tiger population at 118.

Kaziranga, the most important tourist destination in Northeastern India had a record arrival of 1,25,911 tourists during 2013-14, of whom 6922 were foreign tourists, mostly from European countries and the US. The number of domestic tourists has registered a significant increase over the years, from 53,640 during 2007-08 to over 1.19 lakh in the last tourist season. Likewise, the number of foreign tourist has jumped from 3772 in 2003-04 to 6922 during 2013-14.

Recognized as the biggest conservation success story of the 20th century, relentless efforts put in by the authorities have witnessed the increase of one-horned rhino population in Kaziranga from just about 20 pairs in 1905 to 2329 animals as found in the census conducted in 2013.

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