Indo-French partnership on Kaziranga project
Recently India and France have agreed to cooperate on Kaziranga project.
France’s Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD) has funded the project for 80.2 million euros over a period of 10 years between 2014-2024.
Kaziranga project
- The Kaziranga Project Forest and Biodiversity Conservation (APFBC) is a part of this project.
- The Government of Assam, with the support of AFD, launched APFBC in 2012 to restore forest ecosystems, protect wildlife and enhance livelihoods of forest-dependent communities.
- The project envisages reforestation of 33,500 hectares of land by the year 2024 and training of 10,000 community members in alternative livelihoods.
About Kaziranga National Park
- Kaziranga National Park located in the state of Assam is the single largest undivided and representative area in the Brahmaputra valley floodplain.
- Kaziranga National Park is spread over an area of 42,996 hectares. This park was declared a national park in the year 1974. After this, Tiger Reserve was declared in the year 2007.
International Status:
- The garden was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 1985. It has also been recognized by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area.
- Biodiversity: Kaziranga National Park is home to the largest number of one-horned rhinos in the world.
- Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is second only to Kaziranga National Park in Assam in terms of number of rhinos, while Pobitora Sanctuary has the highest population density of rhinos in the world.
- Much of the conservation effort in Kaziranga is focused on the ‘big four’ species – rhino, elephant, Royal Bengal tiger and Asiatic water buffalo.
- There were 2,413 rhinos and about 1,100 elephants in the 2018 census.
- According to the tiger census data conducted in 2014, Kaziranga had an estimated 103 tigers, the third largest population in India after Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand (215) and Bandipur National Park in Karnataka (120).
- Kaziranga is also home to 9 of the 14 species of primates found in the Indian subcontinent.
Rivers and Highways:
- There are more than 250 seasonal water bodies in the park, apart from which the Dipholu River passes through it.
- National Highway No-37 passes through this park area.
Source – The Hindu
