Orang National Park

Orang National Park covers about 79 square kilometres on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Darrang and Sonitpur districts. Tribal villages occupied the land until an epidemic emptied it around 1900. It became a game reserve under British rule, a wildlife sanctuary in 1985 and a national park in April 1999. The Pachnoi, Belsiri and Dhansiri rivers border it, and in the monsoon much of the flat terrain turns into floodplain, with a dozen natural wetlands.

The landscape is a patchwork of savannah, wet alluvial grassland, swamp forest and moist deciduous woodland. The one-horned rhinoceros dominates, with 68 counted at the last census, alongside Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, hog deer and wild boar. The critically endangered pygmy hog has been reintroduced here, and Gangetic dolphins, otters and fishing cats are also recorded. Its birdlife has earned it a listing as an Important Bird Area.