Foreign
tourists flock to Kaziranga national park
by Vaschipem Kamodang / Peter Alex Todd
Kaziranga
National Park (Assam): Assam's popular Kaziranga National
Park, which is home to the endangered one-horned rhinoceros,
continues to be a major draw for tourists, both domestic
and foreign, despite travel advisories issued by several
countries against visiting Assam following blast incidents
in the recent past. While domestic tourists have increased
from a million to over 3.4 million, the number of foreign
tourists' has risen from 7,000 in 2001 to 13,000 at present.
The national park is listed as a world heritage site.
The fact that today thousands of tourists visit Kaziranga
is an indication of the park's popularity. Besides, the
tourist influx has created new employment opportunities
and helped the local people earn more money. "Our elephants
have been engaged here. All tourists who come here, get
elephant rides. There is a great demand for it. Earlier,
the seat rate was less, but now, we have increased it
to Rs. 300 and with that amount we offer one hour safari
rides," said Diganta Baruah, an elephant owner. "I've
been in this business for the past two years. The government
scheme is going on well here. Tourists are increasing
day by day and it is benefiting the business of the local
people. We hope that the government would come up with
more new schemes and is going to be even better," said
Hari Gogoi, one local shop owner.
To
conserve and protect Asiatic elephants, the park organizes
an annual elephant festival, which is considered to be
the biggest in the country. The festival draws hordes
of domestic and international tourists who are enthralled
by the elephants and cultural programmes that are performed
here. The event is aimed at raising awareness about eco-tourism
and the elephant's struggle for limited resources with
man. The objective is to spread the message of peaceful
co-existence between man and animal. "We must come forward
to preserve these kinds of animals otherwise if we lose
these kind of species day by day from this world we will
be blamed by our coming generation. So they also have
equal right to live in this world," said D.D Bora, a forest
ranger. "This elephant festival, which is organize by
the government is a good initiative. This is to preserve
the wildlife. My wish is to take such programme to carry
forward outside northeast as well to promote our region
to other parts of the country. That ways people will visit
our place and I'm very happy to attend this festival,"
said Hashmi, ONGC. Sixty elephants and over 20 cultural
troupes from the state participated in the festival organised
by Forest, Environment and Tourism Department in association
with Golaghat District Administration. Kaziranga has earned
worldwide accolade and it has received several international
wildlife awards for its exemplary conservation efforts.
-Feb
23, 2009
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