Kaziranga Indian One Horned Rhinoceros Grassland Ecology Assam

Kaziranga National Park in Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam is the world's primary stronghold of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), with a population of over 2,600 rhinos — approximately 70% of the global wild population — protected in 430 square kilometres of tall elephant grass (Imperata, Saccharum), semi-evergreen forest, and water body habitat on the southern floodplain of the Brahmaputra. The park is also one of the world's highest density habitats for wild elephants, tigers, and Asiatic water buffalo, and is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1985). The Mishing and Karbi communities adjacent to the park have held hereditary fishing rights in the park's beels (lakes) and practice flood-recession paddy cultivation on park periphery chars. Kaziranga's annual monsoon flood displaces wildlife onto National Highway 37 elevated sections where animal-vehicle collisions cause significant rhino and elephant mortality. The park's anti-poaching system — operated by Assam Forest Department with forest guards empowered to shoot on sight — reduced rhino poaching to near zero between 2000 and 2012 before a resurgence driven by Vietnamese traditional medicine demand.