Assam’s most famous Kaziranga National Park opens for the tourists for 2017-18 season.
Assam Forest and Environment Minister, Pramila Rani Brahma opened the park for tourists on Monday during a function organised at the park and said that the Government has advanced the opening of the park by one month for the benefit of the tourists.
Spread to 430 square/kms area, Kaziranga national park is one of the most famous tourist pull in Assam, especially for its one-horned rhino population, which is the highest in the world. A UNESCO world heritage site, the park is also known for having substantial population of Asiatic Elephants, Asiatic Water Buffaloes, Swamp Deer and a good number of Royal Bengal Tigers. The park is also a declared Important Bird Area (IBA) by the Birdlife International.
It may be mentioned here that normally the park used to be opened for tourists on November 1 of each year and closed on April 30 with the arrival of monsoon, which often floods the park and the State as a whole.
“Our Government has decided to advance the opening time and defer the closing schedule by one month. We have opened on October 1 and are going to close it by May 30. last year also we tried to keep the park open till May 30 but we had to close it on first week of May due to flood,” said the Forest Minister while talking to The Pioneer.
She said that park authorities have been working on a war footing to open the park on Monday.
It may also be mentioned here that the park has witnessed two waves of floods this year which had extensively damaged the infrastructure of the park and killed as many as 450 animals including rhinos, tigers and elephants.
“Today we have only opened two ranges of the park — Kahara and Bagori ranges. Only 25 per cent area of these two ranges are ready for safari now. We have introduced jeep safari in Kahara and Bagori ranges of the park on Monday. Works are on in a war footing to repair the infrastructure and roads inside the park so that tourist can enjoy. We hope to open the other ranges of the park for tourists soon,” said a senior park official.