Guwahati: Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, which is closed for tourists annually from June to October due to the rains, is to be opened from Nov 1, the park director said Friday.
Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in Assam for domestic and foreign tourists, mainly due to the one-horned rhinos.
According to government data, the park has been recording an increasing number of tourists every year. Last season, a total of around 1.25 lakh foreign and domestic tourists visited the park, officials said.
Kaziranga has been in the news headlines for the last several weeks due to unabated incidents of rhino poaching, forcing the Assam government to press for a CBI inquiry into the cases of rhino poaching in the last three years.
Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain had earlier said that a total of 42 rhinos were killed in and around the park this year, out of which 15 were killed by poachers. The Assam government had also announced a bounty of Rs.5 lakh each for information on poachers in Kaziranga and other protected areas of the state.
The forest department had also sent 150 personnel of the elite force, Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) to the park earlier this month for better protection of the rhinos and other wildlife in the park.
Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natrajan had also visited the park recently and announced a slew of measures for the protection of its wildlife, including sanctioning of an unmanned aircraft for better monitoring of the park.
Meanwhile, the Gauhati High Court has directed the central and Assam governments to file a detailed affidavit on the steps taken by them to check poaching of rhinos and alleged land encroachment of Kaziranga National Park.
A division bench of the court comprising Chief Justice A K Goel and Justice A K Goswami yesterday issued the directive asking the government to file the affidavit by November 19 next. The Court also directed the state government to file an affidavit detailing the area encroached by illegal settlers.
Acting on a suo moto PIL, the Court on October 4 had asked the state government to file the affidavit yesterday.
Additional advocate general Devajit Saikia representing the state government sought more time after apprising the court about the slew of measures taken by the forest and environment department to protect the rhinos in the park.
The world-famed Kaziranga National Park has witnessed a spate of rhino killings recently with 44 pachyderms dying naturally or due to floods. Nineteen rhinos were killed by poachers this year triggering widespread protest across the state. (Agencies)
