Laokhowa-Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary

About Laokhowa-Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary

Laokhowa and Burhachapori are two adjoining wildlife sanctuaries on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam's Nagaon district, together forming a wildlife corridor between some of the state's most important protected areas: Kaziranga lies to the east, Orang and Pobitora to the west, Pakke-Nameri to the north, and the Karbi Anglong reserve forests to the south. Laokhowa alone covers about 70 sq km of riverine grassland and semi-evergreen forest, a landscape shaped by the Brahmaputra's shifting channels much like Kaziranga's. The sanctuary's most significant recent milestone is the natural return of the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Rhinos had been poached to local extinction here in the 1980s; in December 2023, two rhinos moved into the sanctuary of their own accord from neighbouring habitat, the first confirmed sighting of the species here in decades, and forest staff have monitored them closely since. Elephants, royal Bengal tigers, and Asiatic water buffalo also use the sanctuary, alongside barking deer, fishing cat, leopard cat, civet, and wild pig. Birdlife is a major draw: more than 225 species have been recorded, making the sanctuary an increasingly popular stop for birders visiting central Assam alongside Kaziranga. The wetlands and grasslands also support a breeding population of around 39 fish species, 9 amphibian species, and 14 reptile species, underlining how much of the sanctuary's ecological value sits below the waterline as well as above it. Because the rhino population here is newly re-established rather than long-standing, Laokhowa-Burhachapori offers a genuinely different visitor narrative from Assam's flagship parks: a conservation-recovery story still unfolding, rather than an already-stabilised population. Visitors interested in Assam's broader rhino-conservation landscape, not just Kaziranga's, will find this sanctuary a meaningful complement to a Kaziranga trip.