100 yrs of Kaziranga with Curzon heirs

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not make it to the centenary celebrations of Kaziranga National Park but the descendants of Lord George C...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not make it to the centenary celebrations of Kaziranga National Park but the descendants of Lord George Curzon and Nigona Shikari will be there. Shikari is known to have guided Lady Mary Victoria Leiter Curzon to spot the one-horned rhine exactly 100 years ago. It was in Lord Curzon’s time as Viceroy that the first move was made to declare Kaziranga a protected area.

While Curzon’s descendants will make the trip from London, torch-bearers from all state capitals of the North-east are also on their way to the 430- sqkm park for the celebrations on Friday.

Noted elephant catcher and the country’s lone woman elephant trainer, Parbati Barua, will set up a mahout village in the vicinity of the park where visitors can catch mock drills the mela shikar method of domestic elephants helping mahouts capture wild elephants.

‘‘Showcasing Kaziranga has two purposes. One, to focus on one of the century’s greatest conservation success stories, and two, to attract more tourists to Assam,’’ said state Forest and Environment Minister Pradyut Bordoloi.

Authorities have sought to let out tea garden bungalows. ‘‘The stay in a tea bungalow will be fun for visitors, given that some of these bungalows are more than 100 years old,’’ Bordoloi said.