History of Kaziranga National Park

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Kaziranga National Park (Assamese: কাজিৰঙা ৰাষ্ট্ৰীয় উদ্যান Kazirônga Rastriyô Uddyan (IPA: kaziɹɔŋa ɹastɹijɔ udːjan) is an Indian national park and an UNESCO World Heritage Sites located on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam, India.

In the early 19th century, the area around Kaziranga National Park was not well settled, as it was notorious for wild animals, malaria, frequent floods and unpredictable changing of course of the Brahmaputra River. With the rise of the tea industry in Assam, the forests in the area were slowly cleared for settlements and tea plantations. The local villagers practiced some slash and burn cultivation, while the British established small permanent colonies for tea cultivation.^[1]

The history of protection in Kaziranga dates back to the early 20th century, when Lady Curzon (Mary Victoria Leiter), the charming American first wife of Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India visited the Kaziranga area in 1904.^[2] Kaziranga had already been known for its rhinoceros population. However Lady Curzon saw only hoof marks and failed to see any rhinoceros. It is rumored that the noted Assamese animal tracker Balaram Hazarika showed Lady Curzon around Kaziranga and impressed upon her the urgency of conservation of the wildlife.^[3] Concerned about the dwindling numbers of rhinos, she asked her husband to take necessary action to save the rhinoceros, which he did.

The Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest was thus created on 57,273.6 acres of land, on June 1, 1905 by notification of the Chief Commissioner of the area.^[4]

A proposal was made to extend the Kaziranga Reserve Forest by including a piece of land to the east of the existing reserve towards the Bokakhat Dhansirimukh road. Local people objected to this as their rights towards grazing, fishing, collection of cane, thatch and firewood etc would be in danger. The European community of tea planters also objected to the proposal mainly on the ground that the area available for big game shooting would be greatly reduced. Another objection was that during the rainy season there used to be a good deal of boating down the Difloo river and the Mora Dhansiri river through which tea from the neighboring tea gardens were taken into the Brahmaputra river. At last with the interventions of the Forest Settlement Officer and Deputy Commissioner, Sibsagar District Major A. Playfair, an area of 13,506 acres was added to the Kaziranga reserve vide notification No.295 R dated 28 January 1913.^[1]

In later years another proposal was made to add extra land towards the north of the reserve to provide shelter to the wild animals during the flood as the ground was comparatively higher and also to protect the wild animals from the danger of possible epidemics spreading through the domestic livestock. The presence of a large number of domestic buffaloes belonging to Nepali grazers in the proposed area caused much delay in the final making of the Reserved Forest. However the Chief Commissioner decided in favour of making the reserve and finally an area of 37,529 acres of land extending the Kaziranga Reserve up to the Brahmaputra River was notified vide notification No.3560 R dated the 26 July 1917.^[1]

The additions continued and an area of 151 acres was further added to the Kaziranga reserve vide notification No.FOF/WL/512/66/17 on 7 April 1967^[1] extending the reserve to the south of the National Highway No.37 to provide a corridor to the animals to cross over to the Karbi Anglong Hills during the flood.

Finally, the proposal to declare Kaziranga as a National Park was taken up by the then Chief Conservator of Forests, P. Baruah. To achieve this objective "The Assam National Park Act of 1968" was passed by the Government of Assam, as there was no provision to create a National Park under the existing Forest Regulations. Kaziranga became a National Park with an area of 42,993 hectares vide notification No.FOR/WL/722/68 dated 11 February 1974.^[1]

Later several new areas were added as additions to the National Park. The first addition (area 43.79 sq km on 28 May 1977), the second addition (area 6.47 sq km vide preliminary notification on 10 July 1985), third addition (area 0.69 sq km on 31 May 1985), fourth addition (area 0.89 sq km on 3 August 1988), fifth addition (area 1.15 sq km on 13 June 1985), and the sixth additions (area 376.50 sq km on 7 August 1999) were made.^[1] Two reserve forests Panbari (area of 1894 acres) and Kukurakata (3936 acres) also came under the administrative control of the Kaziranga National Park.^[1]

The park formally became a Reserve forest in 1908, a game sanctuary in 1916, and was officially closed for shooting in 1926. Kaziranga was thrown open to visitors in 1938. After the independence of India, Kaziranga was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950. In 1954 the Assam Legislative Assembly gave the rhino legal protection through the Assam (Rhinoceros) Bill that laid down heavy penalties for killing rhinoceros.^[1] In 1974 Kaziranga was designated a National Park, the first national park in the state of Assam. UNESCO declared Kaziranga a World Heritage Site in 1985.^[5] Additional lands have been incorporated into the park, and a proposal to add some 45,450 hectares has been put forward to include the adjoining section of the Brahmaputra River to the north and part of the Mikir Hills to the south, to provide a protected refuge where animals can take shelter during floods.^[5]

Before 1950 the tourist facilities were very less and the accommodation consisted mainly of a Public Works Department inspection bungalow at Kaziranga and a Forest rest house at Baguri. This accommodation was found highly inadequate for meeting the demands of increasing number of visitors to the park. For solving this problem one visitor’s camp at Kaziranga and later on two tourist lodge were constructed by the department on a small hillock at Kohora and one Forest Rest House was also constructed at Arimora. The management of these two Tourist Lodges was handed over to the State Tourism Department in 1963 after the creation of this new department under the Government of Assam.^[6]

The ULFA separatist movement in Assam however did not significantly affect the park's wildlife or tourism, unlike Manas National Park in Assam, and it has been reported that the ULFA actually "tried" and killed rhino poachers in the late 1980s.^[3]

Severe losses to the number of wildlife occurred during floods, the worth mention are the floods of 1973 in which several animals were killed.^[7] In 1988 a devastating flood ravaged the park in which 70% of the park was submerged under water killing 38 rhinoceros, including 23 calves, 1,050 deer, 69 wild boar, three baby elephants, two tigers and numerous smaller species.^[7] In 1996 44 rhinoceros were killed by floods.^[7] In 1998 due to exceptional heavy rainfall the Brahmaputra River flooded and parts of the Park were under 6 metres of water.^[8] More than a square kilometre area of the floodplain was washed away; an estimated 652 animals, including 42 rhinoceroses, were lost.^[8] During that time WWF-India provided material assistance and the Indian army constructed ten islands on high ground for wildlife.^[8]

The park celebrated its centenary with much fanfare in 2005, inviting descendants of Lord Curzon for the celebrations, and combining the celebrations with the annual Kaziranga Elephant Festival.^[3]

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