Guwahati: Assam’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Kaziranga National Park and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary — have received contrasting evaluations in the IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025, released on October 11, highlighting both conservation successes and emerging ecological challenges in the state.
The assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rates Kaziranga’s outlook as “Good with Some Concerns,” while Manas remains under “Significant Concern.” The report points to the delicate balance between effective wildlife protection, community engagement, and pressures from climate change, tourism, and infrastructure development.
Kaziranga a conservation success amid rising pressures
Home to the world’s largest population of the one-horned rhinoceros, Kaziranga maintains its Outstanding Universal Value through strong legal protection, adaptive management, and vigilant anti-poaching operations. Rhino poaching has nearly been eradicated, with no cases in 2022 and only two each in 2023 and 2024.
However, ecological stability faces mounting threats from unregulated tourism, encroachments, road traffic, and increasingly destructive floods driven by climate change.
The proposed Kaziranga Elevated Road Project, aimed at reducing animal-vehicle collisions along National Highway 715, is noted as both a potential long-term benefit and a short-term construction risk. Luxury hotels near wildlife corridors and agricultural encroachment are additional concerns.
Despite these pressures, park management is deemed largely satisfactory, supported by the Assam Forest Department and Assam Police, with improved intelligence networks, technology-driven patrolling, and community-based eco-development initiatives.
Manas threatened by hydropower and invasive weeds
Once listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in danger, Manas has seen notable biodiversity recovery, including successful reintroductions of the Greater One-horned Rhino, Pygmy Hog, and Eastern Swamp Deer. Tiger, elephant, and wild water buffalo populations have also grown, with wild buffalo now exceeding 500 individuals.
Persistent threats remain, including illegal encroachments, invasive weeds such as Mikania micrantha and Chromolaena odorata, and hydrological disruptions from Bhutan’s hydropower projects, which have caused recurrent floods in the Manas-Beki river system. Habitat degradation from illegal cultivation, livestock grazing, and unregulated grassland burning further undermines ecological resilience. Climate-induced drying of alluvial grasslands and declining rainfall are additional challenges.
Shared challenges, shared responsibility
Both parks are commended for community-based eco-development initiatives and engaging local youth and women in conservation-linked livelihoods. Yet, the IUCN warns that unplanned tourism and infrastructure projects near park boundaries could undo years of conservation progress.
Kaziranga’s anti-poaching success and Manas’s species recovery highlight Assam’s conservation leadership, but growing pressures call for science-driven management, climate adaptation, and inclusive governance. The 2025 Outlook underscores the urgent need to balance development with ecological integrity — a challenge Assam’s forests, rivers, and grasslands are already confronting.
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