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Kaziranga National Park - The Heart Of Assam

Kaziranga National Park is the heart of Assam, located on the banks of the mighty Brahamputra River. This park is one of the last areas in eastern India undisturbed by a human presence.

Geography

Kaziranga National Park is a World Heritage Site. Its 430 square kilometers of swamps and grassland with tall thickets of savannah elephant grass and patches of evergreen forest support the largest number of one horned rhinos on the Indian subcontinent and offer you some of the best views of wildlife from the back of an elephant or from a four wheel drive vehicle.

Kaziranga national park is a national park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. The Kaziranga National Park area consists of 429.93 Sq.Km. with an additional area of 429.40 Sq.Km. The total area of the park within Nagaon district is 175 Sq. Km., out of which 135 Sq.Km. falls under Bagori Forest Range office and 40 Sq.Km. falls within Ghorakati Forest Range office. A World Heritage Site, the park hosts two-thirds of the world's Great One-horned Rhinoceroses.

Recognition as a National Park

Due to limitless poaching of this prehistoric survivor, the Kaziranga National Park was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1940. Kaziranga boasts the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006. A few centuries ago, the Indian one horned Rhinocerous ranged across the north Indian plains in the wetlands of the rivers Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra. Today this survivor from the prehistoric times is found only in pockets in the north eastern state of Assam and in Nepal. In Assam, their Rhino habitat is limited to just two national parks - Kaziranga and Manas. Kaziranga National Park is a birding paradise; the grasslands are a raptor country that can be seen on safari makes a remarkable experience.

Flora and Fauna

The park also has elephants, swamp or wild buffalo (Over 70% of the world population), swamp deer, hog deer, barking deer, sambar/Hoolock gibbon, pythons, civet cat, wild boar and tigers. There is a rich variety of fresh water fowls, over 450 species of woodland and grassland birds of which 18 species are globally threatened. Birds like the egrets, pond herons, river tern, black necked storks, pelican, partridges, Bengal florican stork, pied hornbill, fishing eagle are found in abundance. The river here has the gharial (fish eating crocodile) and dolphins.

Beside of course the great one horned Indian Rhino, the other major wild attractions include a large population of Indian Elephants, Indian Bison, Swamp Deer or Barasingha, Hog Deer, Sloth Bears, Tigers, Leopard Cats, Jungle Cats, Otters, Hog Badgers, Capped Langurs, Hoolock Gibbons, Wild Boar, Jackal, Wild Buffalo, Pythons, Monitor Lizards, etc.

Kaziranga National Park is a birding paradise; the grasslands are a raptor country that can be seen on safari makes a remarkable experience.  These include the Oriental Honey Buzzard, Black-Shouldered Kite, Black Kite, Brahminy Kite, Pallas's Fishing Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Grey-Headed Fishing Eagle, Himalayan Griffon, etc. Huge numbers of migratory birds descend on the parks lakes and marshy areas during winters, including Greylag Geese, Bar-Headed Geese, Ruddy Shelduck, Gadwall, Falcated Duck, Red-Crested Pochard and Northern Shoveller.

Kaziranga contains significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species, of which 15 are threatened as per the IUCN Red List. The park has the distinction of being home to the world's largest population of the Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros (1,855), Wild Asiatic Water Buffalo (1,666) and Eastern Swamp Deer (468). Significant populations of large herbivores include elephants (1,940), gaur (30) and sambar (58). Small herbivores include the Indian Muntjac, wild boar, and hog deer.

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