KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK

About:

• Kaziranga National Park is located in the Golaghat and Nagaon district of Assam.
  
  
• Conservation status:
  • It was declared a national park in 1974.
    
    
  • UNESCO declared it a world heritage site in 1985.
    
    
  • It became a Tiger Reserve in 2007.
    
    
  • It is also recognized as an ‘Important Bird Area’ by BirdLife International for the conservation of avifaunal species.
    
    
  
  
  
• Fauna: KNP has an estimated –
  • two-thirds of the Indian rhinoceros numbered at 2,413 (Acc. to the latest Rhino census),
    
    
  • 57% of the world’s wild water buffalo population,
    
    
  • One of the largest groups of Asian elephants and
    
    
  • 21 Royal Bengal tigers per 100 sq.km – arguably the highest Tiger density.
    
    
  
  
  
• Threat to Indian Rhinoceros:
  • Indian rhinoceros, or greater one-horned rhino, is categorised as ‘vulnerable’ by IUCN.
    
    
  • The major threats to are Poaching and annual floods in the Brahmaputra which creates havoc in the Kaziranga.
    
    
  
  
  

Recent Division of KNP:

• Assam’s Environment Department has notified the splitting of KNP into (1) Eastern Assam division and (2) Biswanath division, with the Brahmaputra coming in between.
  
  
• Splitting the KNP into two divisions will ensure better deployment of divisional forest officers in the Biswanath area, where most of Rhinoceros poaching happens.