Located in Assam, this park lies northeast of the narrow neck of land between Nepal and Bangladesh, and has a landscape of sheer forest, tall elephant grass, marshes and shallow pools. A world heritage site, you can see two-third of the world's Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros population here. It's also rich in elephants, wild buffalos, monitor lizards, and water birds. A private jeep tour or elephant ride are your options. 

The park is approximately 40 km (25 mi) in length from east to west, and 13 km (8 mi) in breadth from north to south. Kaziranga covers an area of 378 km2 (146 sq mi), with approximately 51.14 km2 (20 sq mi) lost to erosion in recent years

Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, crisscrossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, and the park includes numerous small bodies of water. Kaziranga has been the theme of several books, songs, and documentaries. The park celebrated its centennial in 2005 after its establishment in 1905 as a reserve forest.

Kaziranga boasts the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006. The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International for conservation of avifaunal species. Compared to other protected areas in India, Kaziranga has achieved notable success in wildlife conservation. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park combines high species diversity and visibility.

Although the etymology of the name Kaziranga is not certain, there exist a number of possible explanations derived from local legends and records. According to one legend, a girl named Ranga, from a nearby village, and a youth named Kazi, from Karbi Anglong, fell in love. This match was not acceptable to their families, and the couple disappeared into the forest, never to be seen again, and the forest was named after them. According to another legend, Srimanta Sankardeva, the sixteenth century Vaisnava saint-scholar, once blessed a childless couple, Kazi and Rangai, and asked them to dig a big pond in the region so that their name would live on. 

Testimony to the long history of the name can be found in some records, which state that once, while the Ahom king Pratap Singha was passing by the region during the seventeenth century, he was particularly impressed by the taste of fish, and on asking was told it came from Kaziranga. Kaziranga also could mean the "Land of red goats (Deer)", as the word Kazi in the Karbi language means "goat", andRangai means "red".

 

 

Location-  Golaghat and Nagaon districts, Assam, India.

Nearest city- jorhat, tezpur.

Activities to do- wildlife safari.

Best time to visit- September to October and Jan to Feb. 

 

1) By Road-  Guwahati (217 KM, Rs. 200), Jorhat (96 KM, Rs. 70), Nawgaon, Dibrugarh, Tezpur (75 KM, Rs. 50)or Tinsukia. Get down at Kohora on Guwahati-Jorhat route. If visiting Kaziranga after a trip to Arunachal Pradesh, Tezpur is the best destination from which to catch a bus here. If entering the state of Assam via Guwahati, take a bus from there to Jorhat via Kaziranga National Park which would take around 6 hours to reach Kohra whereas it would take 5 hours on its way back.

2) By Rail- The nearest railway station to Kaziranga is Furkating, which is 80 km away. Furkating is connected by trains from Guwahati, apart from Delhi and Kolkata. Guwahati is the nearest major railway station and is well connected with rest of India by train.

3) By Air-  Nearest airport is in Jorhat town, which is 96 km away from Kaziranga. Jorhat is connected to Kolkata, Delhi and Guwahati by regular flights.