Rhinos and birds in Pabitora Park beckons nature enthusiasts

Guwahati: Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in central Assam is known as abode of one-horned India rhinos, but Pabitor Wildlife sanctuary located about just 45 Kilometers away from the bustling Guwahati city is probably the best location on the globe to sight the majestic ancient animal given that the tiny park is known for highest concentration of one-horned rhinos in the world.
Tourists and wildlife buff have started thronging Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) which is just over an hour drive from Guwahati city, after the protected area was thrown open for tourists on November 2 last.
All the tourists resorts in and around the WLS on Thursday informed that they had been receiving good number advance booking request from domestic as well as foreign tourists for the entire season till April next year and expected over 85 per cent occupation.
A senior forest official in the sanctuary informed that elephant and jeep safaris were being conducted regularly and all the roads and bridges inside the sanctuary were in good condition and ready to welcome tourists for the season.
“The beauty about rhino sighting in Pabitora sanctuary is that one does not even need to go inside the Park to see the animal which regularly comes out in scores to the grassland besides the main road in the early morning and afternoon,” the official said.
Besides the rhino, the numerous wetland inside the sanctuary which boasts of a treasure trove of fish species, attract large number of migratory birds every winter and the birds have already started floc-king the place.
Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary earns average Rs 50 lakh from tourists during one year while average 600 foreign tourists visit the park besides a large number of domestic visitors. The major chunk of overseas visitors usually come the UK, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Sri Lanka.
Pabitora with an area of 36 sq km is situated in Morigaon district of central Assam and just 45 km from
Guwahati city . A team of Indian and international experts found more than 12,000 birds of different species during a survey carried out a couple of years back. Although Pobitora is mainly famous for its great Indian One-horned rhino-ceros, besides rhinoceros, the other animals are leopard, wild boar, barking deer, wild buffalo and various kinds of snakes etc.
Sometimes the animals move outside the sanctuary in search of food. Under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020) which is a joint programme of the depart-ment of environment & forests, Govt of Assam, WWF India, the Inter-national Rhino Foundation and the US fish & wildlife service, six rhinos were translocated from Pobitora  into the Manas National Park between December 2010 and January 2011.
Earlier, under the same programme, two rhinos were similarly translocated from Pobitora to the Manas national Park in 2008