Guwahati:
More than 64,000 tourists have visited the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, famed for the one-horned Indian rhinoceros, since it reopened on October 21, an official said. The park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, usually remains closed between June and September because of the annual floods and reopens in November.
The park’s Field Director P Sivakumar said that 64,100 tourists visited since October 21,2020 while the revenue collected during the 70-day period was Rs 127.32 lakh. In 2018-19, over 47,10,971 domestic tourists and 25,739 foreign tourists had visited the state.
The park authorities could successfully restrict rhino poaching with only two rhinos poached in the year 2020, he said on Friday. Sivakumar said that 66 cases, including 17 rhino- related cases, have been booked during the year while 95 people have been arrested in 38 rhino and other wildlife crime related cases.
In September last, the Assam government had approved the seventh, eighth and ninth additions to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. In November, according to a directive of Gauhati High Court, the civil administration of Bokakhat Sub-division under Golaghat district handed over the third and fifth additions to the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
The area of the third addition is 69.76 hectares and that of the fifth addition is 115.36 hectares. Sivakumar said that as a part of the water conservation in 2020, five additional wetlands – Chirakhowa, Potahi, Deosur, Haldhibari and Banderdubi – were created which are huge and serve as habitats.
