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KAZIRANGA - NOT ALL RHINOS |
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Kaziranga is known all over the
world  as
the home of one-horned rhinoceros -
a world heritage site. But Kaziranga
is not all aboutrhinos, it has many
other animals, ducks and birds, which
visitor can witness as easily as possible
either from car or an elephant back.
This easy accessibility to wild life
is the secret of Kaziranga's growing
popularity among the wild life lovers
and tourists of the world.
With its primeval vegetation Kaziranga
presents a view of what Brahmaputra
valley must have been like ages ago,
before it  opened
up for cultivation and habitation. Midway
between Guwahati and Dibrugarh, two
major towns of the state, Kaziranga
is almost on the National Highway 37,
covering an area of 430 square kilometers.
Kaziranga is also a paradise for bird
lovers.
In the geographical center of Assam,
the river Brahmaputra forms the shifting
northern border
of Kaziranga National Park, one of the
gems of Indian wildlife conservation
and home to 65% of the world's population
of 'Rhinoceros unicornis', the great
one-horned Indian rhino. Each monsoon,
the Brahmaputra breaches its banks and
floods the park, breathing life back
in to the parched land and replenishing
the 200 'bheels' or shallow lakes with
water and fish.
Situated on the Brahmaputra River, the
Kaziranga National Park (altitude ranges
between 40m and 80 m. To the South of
the Park, the Karbi Hills rise to about
1,220m) covers an area of about 430
sqkm. Its swamps and grasslands with
tall thickets of elephant grass and
patches of evergreen forest support
the largest number of rhino in the subcontinent.
It was an alarming depletion in their
numbers, due to hunting and  poachingthat
led to the conservation of this area
in 1926. In 1940, Kaziranga was declared
a sanctuary.
Herds of barasingha and wild buffalo
are seen in the marshes. Rhinos browse
unconcernedly as the visitors pass by
and an occasional herd of elephants
or wild boar is also sighted. The grasslands
are raptor country and the crested serpent
eagle, the Pallas fishing eagle and
grey-headed fishing eagle can be seen
circling over the marshes. The water-bird
variety includes swamp partridge, bar-headed
goose, whistling teal, the Bengal florican,
storks, herons and even pelicans.
"KAZIRANGA
NATIONAL PARK" was added
to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1985. |
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Wild Life & Crafts of
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