Kaziranga National Park

Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Forest and Wildlife Resources"

Meaning

Kaziranga National Park is a national park on the Brahmaputra floodplain in Assam. It holds about two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceros. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 and a tiger reserve in 2006.

It matters because it is the main home of one species, the one-horned rhino. It also shows how a river's yearly floods can both keep an ecosystem alive and put its animals in danger.

Explanation

What kind of protected area it is

• Kaziranga is a national park under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• A national park is kept strictly for wildlife, and laws fix its boundaries.

• Forestry, grazing and farming are not allowed inside it.

• It has three labels at once:

• National park. This is its legal status under Indian law.
• World Heritage Site (1985). This is a UNESCO listing under the World Heritage Convention (1972) for "outstanding universal value". Kaziranga is a natural site.
• Tiger reserve (2006). This is a protected area managed mainly for tigers under Project Tiger, which started in 1973.

Why UNESCO listed it

• UNESCO named two reasons [4]:
• Large numbers of wildlife. It has one-horned rhinos, tigers, elephants, panthers, bears and birds.

• A rare ecosystem. It is a Brahmaputra floodplain and grassland ecosystem that people have left largely undisturbed.

• A floodplain is flat land beside a river that goes under water during floods.

How the floods shape the park (cause → process → result)

• Floods bring food:
• Every year the Brahmaputra floods and spreads fresh silt (fine, fertile soil) over the park.
• The silt helps tall grasslands grow back.

• Rhinos and deer get fresh grass to eat.

• High floods bring danger:

• In very high floods, most of the low land goes under water.
• Animals move towards higher ground, where the highway runs.

• Speeding vehicles hit and kill some of them.

• What this means: floods keep the park alive, but very big floods kill animals. Managers must protect the animals' escape routes, not stop the floods.

What it needs to survive

• Regular floods to keep renewing the grasslands.
• Undisturbed land. It must stay free of grazing, farming and forestry, as the national-park rules require.
• Safe routes to high ground so animals can escape big floods.

Where it occurs

• State: Assam, in north-east India.
• River: the Brahmaputra, on its floodplain.
• Other natural World Heritage Sites listed in 1985:
• Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam

• Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan

• Assam has two natural World Heritage Sites, Kaziranga and Manas, both from 1985.

• Its place in the national network: India has 106 national parks among 1,014 protected areas (as of 27 November 2023) [2]. National parks cover only 1.35% of India [3].

Don't confuse with

• Manas Wildlife Sanctuary: it is also in Assam and also a 1985 World Heritage Site, but it is listed as a wildlife sanctuary. Kaziranga is a national park and is the main home of the one-horned rhino.
• Keoladeo National Park: it was also listed in 1985, but it is a bird wetland in Rajasthan and a Ramsar site (1981) [6]. Kaziranga is a rhino and grassland floodplain in Assam.
• Wildlife sanctuary: a sanctuary allows some activities, such as collecting minor forest produce (honey, leaves, gum). A national park like Kaziranga bans forestry, grazing and farming.
• Sundarbans National Park: it is also a tiger reserve and World Heritage Site, but it is a mangrove delta in West Bengal. It became a tiger reserve in 1973 and a World Heritage Site in 1987 [4]. Kaziranga became a tiger reserve later, in 2006.

Prelims Hooks

• Kaziranga → Assam → Brahmaputra floodplain. It holds about two-thirds of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceros.
• Dates: World Heritage Site in 1985. Tiger reserve in 2006.
• 1985 natural World Heritage trio: Kaziranga, Manas and Keoladeo. Only Keoladeo is outside Assam.
• UNESCO's reasons [4]: rhinos, tigers, elephants, panthers, bears and birds, plus an undisturbed floodplain-grassland ecosystem.
• Trap: Kaziranga is a natural World Heritage Site, not a mixed one. India's only mixed site is Khangchendzonga NP, Sikkim (2016) [5].
• Trap: grazing is banned in a national park such as Kaziranga. It is not banned in every sanctuary.

Mains Points

• Floods help and harm (GS-III, disasters and environment):
• Yearly Brahmaputra floods bring silt, renew the grasslands and feed rhinos and deer.
• High floods push animals towards the highway on higher ground, where vehicles kill them.

• So the answer is to protect the animals' escape routes to high ground, not to control the river.

• Global labels bring protection and duty:

• As a World Heritage Site [4] and a tiger reserve, Kaziranga is watched internationally, and its flood problems are monitored.

• This also helps India report on its CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) targets.

• One park holds most of a species:

• With two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos in one floodplain park, a single big flood or disaster could hit most of the species at once.
• National parks cover only 1.35% of India [3], and all protected areas only about 5.32% [2]. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) asks countries to protect 30% of land by 2030.
• This supports the case for corridors (strips of land that link two habitats) and conservation reserves next to parks like Kaziranga.

Related concepts

• National park
• Wildlife sanctuary
• Corbett National Park
• Keoladeo National Park
• Great Himalayan National Park
• Sundarbans
• Sundarbans National Park
• Natural World Heritage Sites of India

Read more

• Protected forests and protected areas: national parks, sanctuaries and World Heritage sites