Guwahati (Assam): Assam's Kaziranga National Park is all set to welcome tourists on October 1 this year. Park officials said this on Saturday and added that while initially there will be jeep safari only, elephant safari will be added from November 1.
The park officials are making an all-out effort to ensure that tourists can have a great experience during their visit to the park, the world's largest home to the one horned rhinos.
Field Director of the National Park, Sonali Ghosh said that preparation has reached the last stage to open the park for tourists for the 2024-25 tourist season. She, however, said that only Bagori, Burhapahar range will be opened for tourists initially.
It may be mentioned here that Kaziranga National Park which houses the highest one-horned rhinos in the world is one of the major tourist-pull in the state. Ghosh said that a total of 327493 tourists have visited the Kaziranga National Park in the 2023-24 tourist season which includes 13919 foreign tourists. The park had earned a revenue of Rs. 88184161, the field director said.
The park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, normally gets closed for tourists after the month of May every year due to the monsoon season which normally floods the park, making it difficult for the animals. Officials said that large areas of the park got flooded this year due to monsoon rains. The rains have also led to the death of some animals in the park.
According to the census in 2022, there are over 2600 one-horned rhinos in the park. Apart from the one horned rhinos, substantial population of animals like Swamp Deer, Hog Deer, Water Buffalo, and Elephant. Also a tiger reserve, Kaziranga National Park also has 104 Royal Bengal Tigers according to a census carried out in 2017.
