Tezpur (Assam): After a long wait, the authorities of Kaziranga National Park are gearing up for re-opening the sanctuary in Assam on October 21.
The state's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonwal and Forest Minister Parimal Shukla Vaidya will also unveil the world-famous Asian Rhinoceros Tour on the same day.
National park authorities had tried to open the park to tourists on October 5, although this was not possible due to the catastrophic floods this year.
Amidst the protocol of COVID-19 pandemic, the National Park Authority has taken precautionary measures to reopen the National Park. The number of tourists visiting Kaziranga National Park has been declining since mid-February this year. And was completely shut down by mid-March.
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The National Park has attracted about 1,850,000,000 tourists this year, though much less than last year. The Assam Tourism Department has lost a lot of revenue due to COVID-19 pandemic. Kaziranga National Park, a state-owned forest for tourists, had annual revenue of Rs 98 lakh and the National Parks as a whole, about Rs 1.5 crore, which is only half of last year's forest revenue.
In the year 2019 alone, the income of tourists was Rs 1.22 crore. According to the current Covid-19 policy, the Government of Assam and the National Parks Authority will ensure the arrival of tourists in the near future.
