Kaziranga National Park is situated on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India. It is famous as a refuge for the Indian or one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). Stretching over an area of 430 km², Kaziranga is one of the last refuges of the Indian rhino. The national park is a vast stretch of coarse, tall elephant grass , marshland and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests. The Park celebrates its centenary in 2005.

Kaziranga reserve was created to preserve Indian rhinocerous numbers, it was established as a proposed forest reserve on June 1, 1905, and Kaziranga was declared a reserve forest in 1908 by the British and was officially closed for shooting in 1926. In 1938 the Park was opened to visitors. In 1950 the area was declared a wildlife sanctuary , in 1954, the rhino was given legal protection through the Assam (Rhinoceros) Bill that laid down heavy penalties for killing it. In 1974 Kaziranga was designated a national park, the first national park in Assam. Bounded by the misty blue hills of Barail and Karbi Anglong to the south, the national park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Today it holds the world's largest population of Indian rhinos, numbering more than one thousand.

Kaziranga is home also to elephants, sloth bears, tigers, leopards, jungle cats, hog badgers, capped langurs , hoolock gibbons, wild boars, jackals, porcupines, pythons, water buffaloes, Indian bison , swamp deer , sambars and hog deer. Besides these, the park has a respectable avian population, which increases considerably in the winter, when migrating birds visit the park.

General Information

• Area : 430 km²
• Best Season : November to March.
• Closed Season : Mid-April to Mid-October.

External link

• Kaziranga Centenary 1905-2005