From a reserved forest of 228.825 Sq. Km to a national park extended to 899 Sq. Km

Background

The Kaziranga National Park is one of the oldest wildlife conservancy reserves of India, first notified in 1905 and constituted as Reserved Forest in 1908 with an area of 228.825 Sq. Km.
It was specially established for conservation and protection of the Greater One Horned Rhinoceros, whose number was estimated at twenty pairs then.
Kaziranga was declared a Game Sanctuary in 1916 and opened to visitors in 1938.
It was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950, and notified as Kaziranga National Park in 1974 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, with an area of 429.93 Sq. Km, which was subsequently extended to 899 Sq. Km.
The park is famous for the Big Five, namely the Rhinoceros, Tiger, Elephant, Asiatic Wild Buffalo and the Eastern Swamp Deer.
It houses the largest population of One Horned Rhinoceros in the world and has about 68% of the entire world population of the species.
It also has one of the highest densities of tigers in the wild in the world, and houses almost the entire population of the Eastern Swamp Deer.
Kaziranga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Northeast India is part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot.