The history of Kaziranga National Park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India, can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1904. It now is a World Heritage Site and hosts two-thirds of the world's Great One-horned Rhinoceroses, tigers, and many other endangered animals.
Reserve Forest
In the early nineteenth century, the area around what is now Kaziranga National Park was not well settled. It was notorious for wild animals, malaria, frequent floods, and unpredictable changes of the course of the Brahmaputra River. Historical records of the forest called Kaziranga date to the seventeenth century. Several local legends relate to the origin of its name, but historians suggest that the name relate to Karbi, a woman who ruled the region at one time. With the rise of the tea industry in Assam, slowly, the forests in the area were cleared for settlements and tea plantations. The local villagers practiced some slash and burn cultivation, while the British established small permanent colonies for tea cultivation.
During the Nineteenth Century, megafauna populations in Assam were systematically destroyed as a result of hunting by British soldiers. Major John Butler of Bengal Native Infantry wrote in 1855 that it was not uncommon for three soldiers "to shoot thirty buffalos, twenty deer, a dozen hogs, besides one or two tigers and rhinoceroses. Captain Pollock, a British military engineer wrote that one or two rihnos or buffalos were shot dead before every breakfast. "the vast eThe history of protection in Kaziranga dates back to the early twentieth century, when Baroness Mary Victoria Leiter Curzon, an American who was the wife of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, first visited the Kaziranga area in 1904. Kaziranga had been renowned for its rhinoceros population, however, during her trips in the region, Baroness Curzon failed to see any rhinoceros, seeing only some hoof marks.
It is rumored that the noted Assamese animal tracker, Balaram Hazarika, showed Baroness Curzon around Kaziranga and impressed upon her the urgent need for conservation of the wildlife. Concerned about the dwindling numbers of rhinoceros, she asked her husband to take the necessary action to save the rhinoceros, which he did on 4 November 1904 when he proposed the creation of a reserve in Kaziranga.
Thus the Kaziranga Proposed Reserve Forest was created on of land, on 1 June 1905 by notification of the Chief Commissioner of the area.
A proposal soon was made to extend the Kaziranga Reserve Forest by including a piece of land to the east of the existing reserve toward the Bokakhat Dhansirimukh road. Local people objected to this as their rights regarding such things as grazing, fishing, collection of cane, thatch, and firewood would be in danger. The European community of tea planters also objected to the proposal, mainly on the grounds that the area available for big game hunts would be greatly reduced. Another objection was that during the rainy season there had been a good deal of boating down the Diphlu river and the Mora Dhansiri river through which tea from the neighboring tea gardens was taken to the Brahmaputra river. At last with the interventions of the forest settlement officer and deputy commissioner, Sibsagar District Major A. Playfair, an area of was added to the Kaziranga reserve vide notification No.295 R dated 28 January 1913.
In later years another proposal was made to add extra land toward the north of the reserve, to provide shelter for the wild animals during flooding, as the ground was comparatively higher, and also to protect the wild animals from the danger of possible epidemics spreading through the domestic livestock. The presence of a large number of domestic buffaloes belonging to Nepali grazers in the proposed area caused much delay in the final making of the Reserved Forest, however, the chief commissioner decided in favour of making the reserve, and finally, an area of of land extending the Kaziranga Reserve up to the Brahmaputra River was notified vide notification No.3560 R dated 26 July 1917.
Additions to the protected area continued and an area of was added further to the Kaziranga reserve vide notification No.FOF/WL/512/66/17 on 7 April 1967 extending the reserve to the south of the National Highway No.37 to provide a corridor for the animals to cross over safely to the Karbi Anglong Hills during flooding.