A Day at Kaziranga

The Indian One Horned Rhino

 Kaziranga National Park is synonymous with the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, the only place in the world where you can see such large numbers of this battle tank like behemoth.  The park is in Assam and covers an area of 430 Sq kms along the river Brahmaputra on the North and the Karbi Anglong hills on the South. The best way to get there would be via Guwahati and Tezpur.  The many places to stay around the park would suit most budgets and levels of luxury. I recommend staying as close to the park as possible to get in an early morning elephant safari.

 There is a view point on the highway approaching the park from where one gets a magnificent preview of the wildlife one is about to experience. From here one sees an enormous expanse of wetland with myriad birds and varieties of animals peacefully coexisting; we saw rhino, wild buffalo, a variety of deer and even a fox all at the same time, quite a Garden of Eden image.  The park is largely a wetland plain mainly covered by dense and tall elephant grass interspersed with stands of tropical semi-evergreen and deciduous forests. The picturesque swamplands have a thick cover of water lilies, water hyacinth and lotus.

Water Buffalo enjoy the swamp

To get a good feel of Kaziranga, I recommend a trip of one day at least, this should include an elephant ride (organised by the wildlife department) and a jeep safari (run privately by the hotels but with a park ranger accompanying). Carry binoculars and a camera with a decent zoom to enjoy the wildlife sightings which are mostly at a distance.

Elephant safari

Our early morning elephant ride started at about 6 am and lasted an hour and a half, I suppose these times would vary at different times of the year and might be worth a check before going. This ride takes you through some of the wetlands and swampy area of the Park that are inaccessible to vehicles. About 10 to 12 elephants with four to six visitors on each spread out in a selected area.  The elephant ride is an experience in itself as for most of the time the elephants have to push through the dense and razor sharp grass which is taller than elephant and riders combined.  In the swampy parts these well trained pachyderms seem to enjoy sloshing knee deep through the water and mud.  The wildlife sightings are mainly by the clearings next to the water pools, and one never knows what the next clearing might bring.  Apart from the ubiquitous birds we saw wild buffalo, rhino and a variety of deer; all at a great distance, this is where the binoculars came handy.  As the sun rose we were treated to a spectacular view of the rays of the sun peeping through the clouds and backlighting the hills to our south. Trying to take photos from a swaying elephant back in low light at extreme zoom is yet another challenge.

Crested Serpent Eagle

a Rhino crosses our path

A little later in the morning a jeep safari for about two hours took us through dense forest and to two view points. Driving along water, either swamp or river, for most of the time, we saw many deer, wild buffalo, birds and turtles basking in the sun on drift wood.  The view points are elevated towers so located as to give a clear view of the area around; from here we managed a good rhino sighting and lots of different types of wading birds. A superb specimen of a crested serpent eagle had the patience to tolerate us real close in a branch overhead. More birds and many distant rhino, deer and wild buffalo sightings later we were on our way home when a lonely male rhino (looking for his lost lady love?) decided to give us a grand display.  He came on to the road about 5 meters from our vehicle and first threatened us with a mock charge; then deciding that we were not worth the effort of another charge, he persisted in going around our vehicle at nearly touching distance for almost 10 minutes, allowing us an unique up close experience and a great photo-op.

Watching from so close a rich and relatively unspoiled ecosystem makes a visit to Kaziranga is a very satisfying communion with nature.  May be in observing these diverse animals peacefully coexist in this Eden like atmosphere there is a lesson for us humans?