Destination: Kaziranga

Kaziranga National Park is in the Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. It is one of the finest wildlife refuges in the world. The park’s contribution in saving the Indian one-horned rhinoceros from extinction to harboring the single largest population of this species is a big achievement. We can see snakes, jackals, wild boar, elephants, birds etc living in natural habitat.

Lady Curzon visited area in 1904 to see one horned Rhinos, but was unable to see any. She asked her husband to take measures in order to safeguard the population of the rhinos. Lord Curzon ordered the creation of Kaziranga Reserve Forest in 1905. The park later expanded up to the banks of the Brahamaputra river.

The park became ‘Kaziranga Game Sanctuary’ in 1916 and remained so till 1938. In 1950 , P. D. Stracey, the forest conservationist, renamed it to Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in order to rid the name of hunting connotations. In 1954, the government of Assam passed the Assam (Rhinoceros) Bill, which imposed heavy penalties for rhinoceros poaching. Fourteen years later, in 1968, the state government passed the Assam National Park Act of 1968, declaring Kaziranga a designated national park. Kaziranga National Park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.