GUWAHATI, SEPT 24: The world-famous Kaziranga National Park in Assam, known to be the home of the one-horned rhino, will be reopened for tourists on schedule on November one, as repair of damages caused by the devastating floods of the Brahmaputra has already begun.Assam Tourism Minister Jagadish Bhuyan told The Indian Express that though there were apprehensions that there would be delay in timely reopening of Kaziranga, the flood waters have receded fast and repair works have already begun. ``We cannot afford to delay opening of Kaziranga for tourists. After all, November one is a regular opening date for Kaziranga to open for tourists every winter. And it will be on time,'' Bhuyan said.The Tourism Minister said the state government has already released Rs 50 lakh for repair works inside the park, while he is himself going to New Delhi and Calcutta next week to meet the tour operators of the two cities to brief them on Kaziranga. Kaziranga drew attention of the entire world when the mightyBrahmaputra played havoc with it earlier this month. ``Luckily the waters went back pretty fast, and the WWF and other international agencies are willing to help us restore the park before the tourism season starts,'' the Minister said.In fact, Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had earlier this month reviewed the damage caused by flood to Kaziranga and issued a world-wide appeal for aid to save the park from disaster.Over-crowded as it is by Rhinos (Kaziranga has about 1400 of the one-horned rhinos), the National Park faced problems during the floods in ensuring safety of life of the animals, as the flood-water had surpassed all previous records and submerged 68 raised platforms of mud constructed after the devastating floods of 1986.The Kaziranga National Park lost about 600 animals this time, of which 31 were rhinos, 20 buffaloes, five elephants, one bear, ten bisons, and about 400 hog-deer and swamp-deer.
