Surge in tourists makes Kaziranga India's 3rd most visited park

Guwahati: The Kaziranga National Park in Assam recorded its highest footfall of over 4.43 lakh tourists during 2024-25 thus becoming the third highest national park visited by tourist after Rajasthan's Ranthambore and Periyar National Park of Kerala.

The officials of the park on Monday said the 1,300sqm national park and tiger reserve—recorded a jump of 35 per cent in inflow of tourists between October 2024 to May 2025. This includes 18,463 foreign tourists. The park remains shut for tourists between May and September due to the Monsoon and flood.

"The surge in tourist numbers at Kaziranga is driven by a combination of new and diverse tourism activities, improved infrastructure and connectivity, high-profile visits, effective marketing, successful wildlife conservation, economic benefits, and the park’s intrinsic natural appeal," park's director, Sonali Ghosh, said in a statement.

Ranthambore and Periyar, the two tourist attractions mainly for tigers, lions and Asian elephants had seen footfall of 6.50 lakh and 7.50 lakh tourists in 2023-24 and 2016, respectively. The data about tourist footfall to the parks during the current year is not available.

Main attractions of Kaziranga

Although the one-horned rhinos in Kaziranga is the main attraction, the park is trying to project its "Big Five" species: rhinos, Royal Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, wild water buffalo and eastern swamp deers, to increase the attractions.

The park also took steps to attract bird lovers and to promote river tourism in the Brahmaputra passing through the landscape.