In Context:

• Some measures at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam will form the cornerstone of an Indo-French initiative.

Measures:

• With French and Indian technical and financial support, the Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership will facilitate partnership activities for interesting natural parks of the Indo-Pacific region.
• These activities include biodiversity conservation, wildlife management and engagement with local communities.

About The Kaziranga project:

• The Kaziranga project is a part of a larger Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation (APFBC) for which the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has committed funding of €80.2 million for a 10-year period, between 2014-2024.
• The project conceptualised the reforestation of 33,500 hectares of land and the training of 10,000 community members in alternate livelihoods by 2024. Kaziranga National Park that remains the heart of the programme.
• The AFD programme has been most effective in the skilling of communities in the area, particularly forest-dwelling communities.
• The Assam government has now begun a massive reforestation drive with the help of the AFD.
• The project has also developed infrared-based early warning systems, triggered by elephant footfall, to either scare off herds from human habitat or to warn villagers.

Kaziranga National Park:

• It is the largest undivided representative area of Brahmaputra valley floodplain grassland, a complex ecosystem of grassland, where various stages of biotic succession in the grassland ecosystem are explicit.
• The Park is the abode of more than 70% of One Horned Rhinoceros in the world.
• It is one of the oldest wildlife conservancy reserves of India, first notified in 1905 and constituted as a Reserved Forest in 1908.
• It was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1950, and notified as Kaziranga National Park in 1974 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, of 1972. It  was declared a World Heritage Site back in 1985.
• It is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.