in recent times—Parbati Barua of Kaziranga. The book went on to win the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Prix Litteraire d'Amis, providing publicity simultaneously to the profession of mahouts as well as to Kaziranga. Controversy In 2017, Kaziranga came under severe criticism after a BBC News documentary revealed a hardliner strategy to conservation, reporting the killing of 20 people a year in the name of rhino conservation. As a consequence of this reporting, BBC News was banned from filming in protected areas in India for 5 years. While several news reports claimed that BBC had apologized for the documentary, the BBC stood by its report, with its Director General, Tony Hall, writing in a letter to Survival International that "the letter “in no way constitutes an apology for our journalism.”" As a response to the report, researchers in India have provided more nuanced understanding of the matter, calling out BBC for the carelessness of its journalism, but also pointing to the problems of conservation in Kaziranga and questioning whether shoot-at-sight has been a useful conservation strategy at all. Economic valuation Kaziranga Tiger Reserve estimated its annual flow benefits to be 9.8 billion rupees (0.95 lakh / hectare). Important ecosystem services included habitat and refugia for wildlife (5.73 billion), gene-pool protection (3.49 billion), recreation value (21 million), biological control (150 million) and sequestration of carbon (17 million). See also Biodiversity of Assam Climate of Kaziranga National Park Jaws of Death, a documentary Kaziranga Elephant Festival List of national parks of India Manas National Park Rhino poaching in Assam Tourism in North East India References Notes Ghosh, S., Nandy, S., & Kumar, A. S. Rapid assessment of recent flood episode in Kaziranga National Park, Assam using remotely sensed satellite data. Current Science, 111(9), 1450–1451. Further information Jaws of Death—a 2005 documentary by Gautam Saikia about Kaziranga animals being hit by vehicular traffic while crossing National Highway 37, winner of the Vatavaran Award. External links Official website of Kaziranga Department of Environment and Forests (Government of Assam)–Kaziranga Chaity- A legend of Human-Animal bondage by Abhishek Chakraborty Best things to do in Kaziranga National Park Rhino census in India's Kaziranga park counts 12 more Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests Tiger reserves of India Geography of Assam National parks in Assam Protected areas established in 1974 World Heritage Sites in India Important Bird Areas of India Tourism in Northeast India Tourist attractions in