If you see, two-thirds of the world’s Great One-horned Rhinoceroses are running beside you in the same ground, what will be your feelings? I know it sounds bit weird. But that’s the fact of “Kaziranga National Park”, a “World Heritage Site”. I am always good at wild-life photography. I had been to different forests around the world for this reason, even in “Kenya” and “Tanzania”. But at last my feet had been fond of one forest, which is the great “Kaziranga”. I still remember the first weekend when I visited “Kazirana” for first time. It’s been a long time since I go there almost twice a year. Whenever I seek for green and dark-green sight around my eyes and lots of wild animals, I run to this wonder forest. Some of the beast ad birds I got here, I have never seen them in any part of the world. To get them in camera lens again and again I have to get in here again and again. In those days, when I used to feel to observe beautiful migratory birds from some quiet tower,” Kaziranga” gave me his warm call again and again. Sometime I roamed around the jungle on the back of elephants, sometime I just drove jeep in those adventurous paths among the dark forests. And now when I have collected some of my most fantastic wild life pictures in beautiful photo frames on my studio wall, many of my travel friends ask me from which places I have collected all those rare awesome species and I reply them in a funny way, that from nowhere but “Kaziranga”. And the funniest thing is that, when they hear it from me, within a week they book the packages for “Kaziranga” and come back after few days with the same species photos. They all said, it’s a perfect suggestion for a forest loving traveler as well as the “Heaven for wild-life photographers”.

Let me tell you in details about “Kaziranga National Park”. It has lots of mystery about it’s name, which is quite an interesting matter to discuss. 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. Another way, 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”, and “Rangai” means “red”.

Situated in Nagaon and Golaghat” districts of “Assam” on the southern bank of the “Brahmaputra”, “Kaziranga” lies at the foot of the “Mikir Hills” that rise to a height of 1,220 m., some eight kilometres from “Bokakhat”. The history of “Kaziranga” as a protected area can be traced back to 1904, when “Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston”, the wife of the “Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon of Kedleston”, visited the area. After failing to see a single rhinoceros, for which the area was renowned, she persuaded her husband to take urgent measures to protect the dwindling species which he did by initiating planning for their protection. On 1 June 1905, the “Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest” was created with an area of 90 sq mt.

Today, “Kaziranga” is a World Heritage Site and is probably one of the richest, most picturesque wildlife habitats of southern Asia. “Kaziranga” contains significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species, of which 15 are threatened as per the “IUCN Red List”. The park has the distinction of being home to the world’s largest population of the Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros (1,855), Wild Asiatic Water Buffalo (1,666) and Eastern Swamp Deer (468). “Kaziranga” is one of the few wild breeding areas outside “Africa” for multiple species of large cats, such as Indian Tigers and Leopards. “Kaziranga” was declared a “Tiger Reserve” in 2006 and has the highest density of tigers in the world (one per five km²), with a population of 86, as per the 2000 census. “Kaziranga” also has been identified by “Birdlife International” as an “Important Bird Area”.It is home to a variety of migratory birds, water birds, predators, scavengers, and game birds.
“Kaziranga” has been the theme of, or has been mentioned in, several books, songs, and documentaries. The park first gained international prominence after “Robin Banerjee”, a physician turned photographer and filmmaker, produced a documentary titled “Kaziranga”, which aired on “Berlin” television in 1961 and became a runaway success. American science fiction and fantasy author, “L. Sprague de Camp” wrote about the park in his poem, “Kaziranga, Assam”. “Kaziranga Trail (Children’s Book Trust, 1979)”, a children’s storybook by “Arup Dutta” about rhinoceros poaching in the national park, won the “Shankar’s Award”. The Assamese singer “Bhupen Hazarika” refers to “Kaziranga” in one of his songs. The “BBC conservationist” and travel writer, “Mark Shand”, authored a book and the corresponding BBC documentary “Queen of the Elephants”, based on the life of the first female mahout in recent times—“Parbati Barua of Kaziranga”.

I hope you understood quite well about the importance of “Kaziranga National Park” among the world travelers and wild-life photographers. So, now be ready to try the thrill of “Kaziranga”. Pack your back with the camera lenses to grab the photogenic movements of all the forest’s subjects. The park is open from November to April. Tourists can take rides on elephants to move around the park or cruise in a boat on the Brahmaputra along the park. Major cities like “Guwahati, Jorhat, Furkating” are quite accessible from this national park. So you can find you way to the forest very easily. Cheap and best packages for” Kaziranga” are sold by different agencies of India in a very affordable price. Else you can check the website of “Assam Tourism”. Also you can get Kaziranga travel packages from some exotic travel agencies around the world, specially who does the wild-life tours.