Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary
The Kaziranga National Park in Assam is famous for one-horned rhinoceros. The park was first established in 1905. Thereafter, it was named as Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950. It was converted into a National Parks in the year 1974.
Location
It is located in two districts of Golaghat and Naogaon in Assam over an Area of 430 sq. km.
Connectivity
The park is well connected with roadways. The nearest town, Bokakhat, is 23 km away from the sanctuary.
The nearest airport at Jorhat is 96 km away from the sanctuary. The railway station at Furkating is 75 km away from the sanctuary.
Climate
The climate at Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary is typical sub-tropical monsoon.
Vegetation
The region is covered by coarse grasses called as ‘elephant grass?. Its vegetation consists of aquatic plants in or around water bodies and forest trees. The park is situated on the flood plains of Brahmaputra and in it the floods are a recurrent annual phenomenon. The Karbi-Anglong hills on the southern boundary of the park rise up to 1220 meters.
Floods
It will not be out of place to mention here that much wildlife is destroyed in these floods. Yet, the rich and diverse vegetation and ecosystem provide ideal habitat for a variety of wild animals and birds.
Animals and birds
The Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary has the largest number of Indian One Horned Rhinoceros, wild buffalo and swamp deer. Other animals found in the park are tiger, hoolock gibbon, leopard, hog deer, sloth bear, wild board, pangolin, elephant, sambar, capped langur etc. About 400 species of birds are found here. Prominent among them are herons, cormorants, egrets, pelicans, storks, hornbills, teals, eagles, ducks, terns, pheasants, partridges, bulbuls, pigeons, parakeets, woodpeckers, etc.
Inside roads
There are motor roads within the park and vehicles and elephants can be hired for viewing the park.
Best Time to Visit
Forest lodges and tourist resorts run by the Assam Tourism Department are available the park usually remains closed to visitors for the months of May to October. The best period for visiting the park is from November to March.
World Heritage Site
This park has the honor of being listed in ‘World Heritage Site? (IUCN) in 1985.
