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to Current File Kaziranga steps up patrolling to save one-horned Rhino (Go to Top) Kaziranga Park: Authorities of Kaziranga National Park in Assam have formulated a strategy to check the poaching of one-horned Rhino. Forest guards have been reinforced and local villagers are being inculcated to save rhinocerous in their last habitat. Ranjan Kumar Das, divisional forest officer, Kaziranga, said they are now able to effectively patrol every stretch of the reserve. "We are having 125 number of camps inside the national park, all are equipped with arms, rifles, shotguns. In few camps we are able to provide elephants. Patrolling we carry out on foot and on elephant back, these are the ways by which we cover every square inch of our national park," said Das. Das added that with these efforts there has been a marked decline in the number of poaching incidents from 48 in 1992 to 2 in 2003. Sunil Mondal, a resident of Kuthari village, said villagers are now aware of the conservation needs and their role in it. "The villagers were not aware of the fact that just like dinosaur, the rhinos are also becoming extinct. Due to the forest department's initiative we came to know of the importance. Now whenver we get any information of a poacher then we deliever it to them," said Mondal. Situated
about 217 kilometres from main Guwahati, the park is open to tourists
from October to May and remains closed during the rainy season. Around
1,700 one-horned rhinoceros of their total world population of 2,300
inhabit the Kaziranga park. The park is also home to a large number
of other animals like deer, bison, tiger, bear and endangered Asian
elephants. The National Park was declared as a World Heritage Property
by the United Nations Convention for protection of World Culture and
Natural Heritage in 1985. N-E, Bangladesh all set to be rail-linked (Go to Top) Agartala: Indian Railways is all set to take up an uphill task of connecting all capitals of the seven north-eastern states. The Railways has reach only to the plains of Assam, the largest of the states in the mountainous region. Work on laying tracks to Agartala, capital of Tripura, is near completion while plans are afoot to expand the rail network. "We are planning to connect all the capitals of seven sisters. The problem is that most of these capitals are located in such a way that they are not easily approachable. They are located on hills and intertwined with hillocks, valleys and natural barriers," N. Rama Subramanium, General Manager (Construction) of Northeastern Railways, said. Subramanium said he is hopeful neighbouring Bangladesh, wedged between India's northeastern states and the mainland, would favourably consider Indian railways proposal to run trains across its territory. Bangladesh last year gave nod to a bus service between Agartala and Dhaka while another bus service is already in operation between Kolkata and Dhaka. Development in the northeastern region, home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal groups, has been slow as the remote state is also racked by decades of insurgency. Separatist and tribal groups accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral resources and neglecting the local economy. Most
of India's more than one billion people depend on the 151- year-old
railway, which covers over 63,000 km and is the world's second-largest,
for long-distance transport. The Indian Railways runs almost 14,000
trains carrying more than 13 million passengers a day, acting as the
country's economic lifeline. However, train services to and from the
northeast is comparatively less than other parts of the country. SEE ALSO: Current Topics Goa
sky bus Travel Blues In Focus Nilgiri's
heritage Special Reports Sariska
tiger reserve Travelogues Hub
of Sikkism Reviews Kaziranga's
lessons in wildlife
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