Amid reports of poaching of one-horned rhinos in Kaziranga national park, the most famous national park in Assam is all set to flung its doors open for tourists from November 1.
like every year, the park, which is famous for its one-horned rhino population and also for being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had closed its door for domestic as well as foreign tourists from May 1 due to the monsoon season.
“We normally restrict the entry of visitors to the park from the month of May as the park gets flooded every year during the monsoon season. This year also, 80 per cent of the park area submerged in the flood waters. However, after flood receded, we have already taken up the annual maintenance works of the park and will be completed by the end of this month. Their has been an increase in the tourist inflow every year and this year also we are expecting more tourists than last year,” said park director MK Yadav.
It may be mentioned here that poaching has become one of the major concerns for the authorities in the Kaziranga national park and other protected areas in Assam. A total of 23 one-horned rhinos have already been killed by poachers in Assam this year, out of which 22 have been killed in Kaziranga alone.
According to official statistics, the highest number of poaching cases took place in Assam last year, when the poachers had killed 41 rhinos including 27 in Kaziranga, five in Manas national park, three in Orang national park, two in Pabitora wildlife sanctuary and four in other areas.Assam Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain had informed the State Assembly that a total of 193 one-horned rhinos fell victim to poaching in Assam since 2001.
While over a total of 1,28,435 tourists including 6,922 foreign tourists have visited the park in the last tourist season-2013-14, the number of tourists visiting the park was 1,01,165 in 2012-13 including 7,418 foreign tourists.located about 240 kms away from Assam’s main city Guwahati, the over 800 square kms park is home to one-horned rhinoceros and it also has the highest rhino density in the world. However, the park also contains significant stock of three other large herbivores — the Asian Elephant, the Asiatic Water Buffalo and the eastern subspecies of the Swamp Deer-all of which makes it one of the most sought after tourists destinations in the region.