From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: As the picturesque World Heritage Site at Kaziranga National Park (KNP) was thrown open for tourists for the season on Thursday scores of tourists from England and Japan along with several groups of domestic tourists visited the ‘world heritage site’ known as abode of one-horned rhinoceros.
The tourists season will last till March 31 next.
Another tiny rhino habitat in Assam, Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park in Darrang district was also opened for tourists on Thursday.
Throwing open Kaziranga Park at Kohora and Bagori ranges for tourists on Thursday morning, Assam’s Forest and Environment Minister Rakibul Hussain hoped that Kaziranga Park would continue to remain the principal tourists destination in the State by virtue of its treasure trove of faunal and floral resources.
In an attempt to encourage visits to the park by local people in and around Kaziranga National Park (KNP).
The minister announced that the people from fringe areas of the Park would be provided 90 per cent concession in entry fees in case they come through local eco-development committees.
The minister on Thursday provided a computer to the local Jeep Safari Association in Kaziranga.
The park was visited by over 1.25 lakh tourists including over 6000 foreign tourists last season. The KNP authorities expect that the number would go up this season.
This year the Park was deluged by three waves of flood and the flood water has not completely receded in some parts of the rhino habitat.
A park official said that though the flood water has not completely receded, roads and bridges that were damaged in the flood had been repaired so that tourists can take elephant rides to see the one horned rhino along with a variety of other animals and birds.
Apart from the largest population of the one horned Indian rhinoceros in the world, the KNP also has the largest population density of the Royal Bengal Tigers per 100 sq km as per the latest camera trap survey conducted by Assam Forest Department.
The tiny Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park which is located in north Assam’s Darrang district is also ready to receive visitors for the season.
Called the ‘Mini Kaziranga,’ Orang National Park is considered as the oldest game reserve in Assam located on the northern shores of Brahmaputra.
The 78.81 sq km park has animals such as one-horned rhinoceros elephants, barking deer, leopards, tigers, sambar and the one-horned rhinoceros, besides numerous species of birds including winged visitors during the winter.