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KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK of INDIA: SOME WILDLIFE and TOURISM MANAGEMENT RELATED PRESSING ISSUES N. K. Dheerendra Patnaik1, Kunal Sharma2 & Pradeep Chaudhry3

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KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK of INDIA: SOME WILDLIFE and TOURISM MANAGEMENT RELATED PRESSING ISSUES N. K. Dheerendra Patnaik1, Kunal Sharma2 & Pradeep Chaudhry3 Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Studies XISS, Ranchi, Vol. 17, No.2, June 2019, pp. 8127-8141 KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK OF INDIA: SOME WILDLIFE AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT RELATED PRESSING ISSUES N. K. Dheerendra Patnaik1, Kunal Sharma2 & Pradeep Chaudhry3 Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is a world heritage site inhabited by the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses. In addition, it also supports population no tigers, elephants, panthers, bears, and thousands of birds. As result of sustained conservation efforts, the estimated number of rhinoceros has increased from 40 in 1911 to more than 2400 in 2018. Floods are regular annual feature of the park which is spread over Nagaon, Golaghat & Sonitpur districts of Assam and covers an area of little more than a thousand square kilometres (482 km2 of core zone and 548 km2 of buffer zone). Due to chronic flood problem in Brahmaputra river every year, the park’s management faces an uphill task on one hand, while poachers and heavy traffic on adjoining national highway take heavy toll of wild animals on the other. Besides these, unregulated tourism in the park has the potential to create problems in conservation of the wildlife just like other National Parks of the country. Kaziranga National Park is facing these problems in recent times and Government of Assam must consider promoting and publicizing other protected areas of the state to augment their tourism potential and relieving tourists’ pressure on the park. Some urgent steps needed for sustainable management of this natural asset have been discussed in the present article. Keywords : Natural resource management, protected areas, financial sustainability, wildlife conservation, sustainable tourism, wildlife management, Illegal Natural Resource Extractors, Man-Animal Conflict Introduction Kaziranga National Park (KNP) (26°35'–26°45’N and 93°05'–93°40’E)is located in the floodplain of the Brahmaputra river in the Nagaon, Golaghat and Sonitpur districts of Assam, India, covering an area of 1030 km² and is the largest protected area on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river (Figure1). The terrain of the park is flat (55-75 m above msl) with an east to west incline. Being in the floodplain of the Brahmaputra river, the soil of the park is rich in alluvial deposits (Barua & Sharma, 1999). The park, also declared as a tiger reserve by Government of India, derives its name from the Karbi language in 1 Indian Institute of Forest Management, Nehru Nagar, Bhopal (MP) – 462003. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Indian Institute of Forest Management, Nehru Nagar, Bhopal (MP) – 462003. E-mail: [email protected] 3 Indian Institute of Forest Management, Nehru Nagar, Bhopal (MP) – 462003. E-mail: [email protected] 8127 8128 Patnaik, Sharma & Chaudhry which the word ‘Kazi’ means ‘Goat’ or ‘Deer’ and ‘Rangai’ means ‘Red’, thus meaning ‘the land of red goats or deer’. The Park rests in the ecologically rich Indo-Malayan Biogeographic realm, complexing the elements of both the Indian and Malayan origins, giving it a distinct landscape ranging from woodland–hilly area, woodland- grassland, grassland-water bodies to river islands. A large number of small rivers and channels flow through the park from east to west, mostly originating from the Karbi Anglong hills to the south, run northwards and ultimately drain into Brahmaputra River, adding to its catchment area. Figure–1. Locational map of Kaziranga National Park (adopted from Verma et al., 2015) The conservation efforts at Kaziranga began in 1908, when it was notified as a ‘Reserve Forest’, with the primary aim of protecting the Indian Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis and its habitat (Lahan & Sonowal, 1973). It was subsequently declared as a ‘Game Reserve’ in 1916, made into a ‘Wildlife Sanctuary’ in 1950 and, finally, declared as a ‘National Park’ on January 1, 1974. It was also proclaimed as a UNESCO ‘World Heritage Site’ in 1985 (Figure 2) (Barua & Sharma, 1999). Figure–2, A country-made wooden sign board at the entry gate Kaziranga National Park of India 8129 Review of literature KNP went through three distinct phases of evolution, broadly arranged into the pre-1930s, 1930s to 1970s and post-1970s, before reaching the present status of a world renowned National park. While the conservation mechanisms common to these three phases remain often overlapped, what became typical of these three phases were their distinguishing ideological contours of conservation (Saikia, 2009). During first phase the park conservation story begin with both fauna conservation and joyful game playing (by the Britishers and local rulers) a collective role in shaping the growth of KNP. Between 1871 and 1907 Maharaj Nripendra Narayan shot dead more than 370 tigers, 208 rhinoceroses, 430 buffaloes, and 324 barasingha deer (Thapar, 2003). In 1924, a large number of peasants, in a petition signed by several hundred from the neighbourhood of the sanctuary, strongly protested against the very idea of creating a reserve exclusively meant for animals, and demanded that they be allowed land for cultivation. The second phase integrated it with a larger science of conservation and continued to emphasize on the policy of exclusion of local community in conservation. A conservation framework with the background of some local wildlife laws and acts based on safeguarding a complex habitat eco-system could hardly find space in the ideological imperative. The last and present phase is more driven by larger nationalistic political compulsions, when various international conservation organizations exhorted Government of India and state government to protect the rhino. Over the years the ideological paradigm of wildlife conservation in the Kaziranga National Park had changed significantly (Saikia, 2009). As far as biodiversity of park is concerned, the vegetation of the park may be broadly classified into four categories: (1) Eastern wet alluvial grasslands; (2) Eastern Dillenia swamp forest; (3) Riparian fringing forest; and (4) Assam alluvial plains semi-evergreen forest (Champion & Seth, 1968). According to Kushwaha (1997), wetlands in the park cover 7%, grasslands cover 57%, sand cover 7%, and woodland cover 29% of the total area. The vegetation of the water bodies includes aquatic plants like Andropogon species, Ipomoea reptans, Enhydra fluctuans, Pistia stratiotes, Lemna paucicostata, and Eichhorniacrassipes. In the alluvial grasslands the prominent species of grass are: Phragmiteskarka, Arundodonax, Imperatacylindrica, Saccharumelephantinus and Erianthusravennae. Short grasses such as Hemarthriacompressa, Microstegiumciliatum, Cynodondactylon and Cenchrusciliaris are found around the beels (or shallow lakes, as called locally). Tree species include Bombax ceiba, Dilleniapentagyna, Careyaarborea, Trewianudiflora, Tetramelesnudiflora, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Albiziaprocera, Albizialucida, Phyllanthus officinalis, Ficusspp, Zizyphus jujuba, and Barringtoniaacutangula 8130 Patnaik, Sharma & Chaudhry The Kaziranga Tiger Reserve/National Park presents a unique ecosystem where prescribed burning is used to maintain the vegetation structure by arresting the seral stage of grassland and preventing invasion of tree forest. This is done to ensure adequate quantity and nutritional value of food supply (i.e. grass) to the large population of various herbivores (Verma et al., 2015). The Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (or the erstwhile Kaziranga National Park) is known for the charismatic ‘BIGFIVE’. These include Great Indian One Horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), Asiatic Wild Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), Asiatic Elephant (Elephas maximus), Swamp Deer (Cervus duvauvceli ranjitsinghi), and Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris). The Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is home to about 35 mammal species out of which 15 are threatened and listed under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The latest estimates by the forest department peg the numbers of few species of wild animals as – 2413 One-horned Rhinos (Figure3) 1089 Elephants and 1148 Swamp Deers. The park is full of myriad species of different insects including butterfly and moths. Figure–3. One Horned Rhino spotted during safari at Kaziranga Kaziranga is situated in the Indo-Australian mega fly way of birds and has at least 479 different avifauna species visiting the tiger reserve (Barua & Sharma, 1999). The inventory contains 25 species of global importance of which 23 are critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. The park also acts as the roosting and nesting ground for migratory and indigenous water birds. Vulture population is declining in India drastically due to various reasons but the population of vultures in KNP which contains critically endangered long-billed and slender- billed vultures, has been growing up in recent times (Vasu, 2013). Objectives of the study Certain challenges and wildlife management issues of the park have been discussed in the article. We have discussed about a series of steps needed for sustainable management of the park. Kaziranga National Park of India 8131 Methodology and sources of data The review article is based on literature review, professional experience, knowledge, field visits and discussion with park officials (mostly during current year and during last ten years) enabling the authors to compare park status over last ten years with present one. Certain chronic issues are presented in below given paras to highlight main challenges faced by the park authorities. Observations and findings There are 733 protected
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