Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies in Assam along the Brahmaputra River, spanning the districts of Golaghat, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Nagaon. Its landscape blends dense tropical moist broadleaf forests with towering elephant grass and marshes around numerous beels, or floodplain lakes. This environment supports Indian rhinoceroses, Asian elephants, wild water buffalo, swamp deer, tigers, and fishing cats. The park is also an Important Bird Area and became a Tiger Reserve in 2006. Originally established as a reserve forest in 1905, it marked its centennial in 2005.

The name "Kaziranga" has uncertain origins, with several local legends offering explanations. One story tells of a couple, Rawnga and Kazi, whose forbidden love led them to disappear into the forest, which then took their names. Another account mentions that in the 1600s, Ahom king Pratap Singha, impressed by fish he tasted while passing through, learned it came from Kaziranga. In the Karbi language, "Kazi" means goat and "Rangai" means red, so the name could also mean "Land of red goats," referring to deer.

The park’s protected status began in 1904 when Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, visited and, failing to spot an Indian rhinoceros, urged her husband to act. This led to the creation of the Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest on June 1, 1905, covering 232 square kilometers. In 1950, the Kaziranga Game Sanctuary was renamed the Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary to shed hunting associations. The park has faced natural and human-caused disasters, including severe Brahmaputra floods that have killed wildlife—in 2024, six rhinos and hundreds of deer drowned. Despite a separatist movement in Assam by the United Liberation Front of Asom, the park has remained untouched, with rebels even protecting animals and killing poachers since the 1980s.

Geographically, Kaziranga sits between latitudes 26°30' N and 26°45' N, and longitudes 93°08' E and 93°36' E, in the Kaliabor subdivision of Nagaon, Bokajan of Karbi Anglong, and Bokakhat of Golaghat. It stretches about 40 kilometers east to west and 13 kilometers north to south, covering 378 square kilometers, though erosion has recently claimed roughly 51 square kilometers. An additional 429 square kilometers along its boundary have been designated as separate national park status to expand habitat and create corridors to the Karbi Anglong Hills. The Brahmaputra River forms its northern and eastern edges, while the Mora Diphlu marks the southern boundary; other rivers include the Diphlu and Mora Dhansiri. The terrain features exposed sandbars, flood-formed beels, and elevated chapories that serve as animal refuges during floods, with many artificial chapories built by the Indian Army. As one of the largest protected areas in the sub-Himalayan belt, it is considered a biodiversity hotspot.

The climate sees beels and nullahs dry up in one season, while the monsoon from June to September brings most of the park’s 2,220 millimeters of annual rainfall. In July and August, three-quarters of the western region submerges as the Brahmaputra rises, inundating 70 to 80 percent of the park for five to ten days at a time. This flooding drives most animals to higher ground outside the southern border, like the Mikir Hills. In 2012, unprecedented floods killed 540 animals, including 13 rhinos and many hog deer. Dry spells, however, cause food shortages and forest fires. Vegetation and habitat shift with the seasons: in winter, shallow beels and nullahs dry, and short grasses cover their beds, while tall grasses around perennial beels grow. After the monsoon, herbivores like rhinos rush to these areas to graze. By December and January, tall coarse grasses dry and are control-burned by park staff, with animals gathering in the burnt patches to eat ash and reed stems. Winter showers then spur fresh grass growth, attracting more animals.