Kaziranga National Park
The National Park of Giants
Kaziranga National Park is the oldest park in Assam, India. It lies on the southern banks of the mighty Brahmaputra River, northeast of Assam's capital Guwahati. Formed as a forest reserve in 1926, primarily to safeguard the future of the diminishing rhino population, it covers an area of 430km2.
It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1940, a national park in 1974 and inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1985. It contains the world's largest population of the endangered greater one-horned rhino and contains around 15 species of India’s threatened mammal species.
Kaziranga is also known as the National Park of Giants as it contains almost all large Indian species, including elephant, rhino, wild buffalo, gaur, tiger, swamp deer and the sambar deer.
The numerous water bodies of Kaziranga are rich reservoirs of food (including fish) and thousands of migratory birds, representing over 100 species, visit the park from as far afield as Siberia. Major migratory birds are the grey pelican, black-necked stork, lesser adjutant stork, Pallas’s fish eagle, and grey-headed fish eagle.
A heavy mist envelops Kaziranga National Park early in the morning, leading the main gate of the park to be dubbed ‘kohra’, or mist.