Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (KTR)

News: The first large-scale assessment of the tigers’ population has revealed that the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve has the third-highest density of tigers in the world.

About Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (KTR)

• Location: It is located in the flood plain of the Brahmaputra River, on the foothills of Karbi-Anglong district. It is spread across the districts of Golaghat, Nagaon and Sonitpur of Assam.
  • Biogeographically, Kaziranga belongs to the North East Brahmaputra Valley Province.
• Terrain
  • The terrain of the reserve is flat with gentle slope from east to west.
  • The habitat comprises of alluvial deposits from the Brahmaputra River system.
• Rivers: The river Diffalu, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, flows through the National Park area (core tiger habitat), while another tributary Moradifalu flows along its southern boundary.
• Corridor
  • The reserve has corridor connectivity through the island systems of Brahmaputra with the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park and the Nameri Tiger Reserve.
• Vegetation
  • The reserve supports mainly four types of vegetations – alluvial inundated grasslands, alluvial savanna woodlands, tropical moist mixed deciduous forests, and tropical semi-evergreen forests.
• Flora: Bombax ceiba, Albizzia procera, Albizzia odorotissima, Albizzia lucida, Careya arborea, Premna latifolia, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Dillenia pentagyna and, Zizyphus jujuba.
• Fauna
  • Many endangered and threatened species like Rhino, Tiger, Eastern swamp deer, Elephant, Buffalo, Hoolock gibbon, Capped langur and Gangetic river dolphin are commonly found in the habitat.
• Latest tiger survey
  • The survey documented 148 tigers in the reserve, up from 104 recorded in 2022, 99 in 2018 and 96 in 2014.
  • It has the third-highest density of tigers in the world, after Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand and Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.