Context

• The recent flood in Assam has led to heavy casualties, displacement of peoples and animals and destruction of property and environment.
• It has also led to inundation of 80% of the area of Kaziranga National Park.

Back to Basics:

About Kaziranga National Park

• Kaziranga National Park is a national park in the Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India.
• The sanctuary, which hosts two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses, is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
• Kaziranga is home to the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world, and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006 (Corbett Tiger Reserve of Uttarakhand has recorded the highest tiger density amongst 50 tiger reserves in India).
• The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.
• Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for conservation of avifaunal species.
• Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot.
• Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR)is sandwiched between the Brahmaputra river and the Karbi Anglong Hills. The entire area is formed by alluvial deposits from the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
• Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, crisscrossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra.
• Kaziranga also could mean the “Land of red goats (Deer)”, as the word Kazi in the Karbi language means “goat”, and Rangai means “red”.
• The park is located in the Indomalayan realm, and the dominant ecoregions of the region are Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, and the frequently-flooded Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
• Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary has the highest density of one-horned rhinos in the world and second highest number of Rhinos in Assam after Kaziranga National Park.

Other national parks in Assam are:

Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, Manas National Park, Nameri National Park, Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park.