North East Chron­i­cles: On March 21 and 22nd we are in Kazi­ranga : the sanc­tu­ary that is home to the Indian one-horned rhino

It’s been a while since I’ve vis­ited Kazi­ranga. More than 20 years to be exact.

“Be care­ful,” warns by dad when we are start­ing off on the trip. The rea­son for the warn­ing: the first (and last) time I had vis­ited the sanc­tu­ary, while on the ele­phant safari, the ele­phant I was on… slipped.

I have no idea how an ele­phant can slip (it’s a lit­tle dif­fi­cult to imag­ine) but I am sup­posed to have fallen off the crea­ture. There was a lot of slush and mud and the ele­phant lost its bal­ance tak­ing us down with it.

I have rather vague rec­ol­lec­tions of this slip­pery episode, but my dad with his super power mem­ory remem­bers every­thing. And never for­gets to men­tion it, like he did.

~~

Our first sight­ing of the one-horned rhino was near the road side on the way to the Aranya For­est Lodge, where we were going to be stay­ing. Our dri­ver on the trip, Shaikh (who drove with one hand per­ma­nently on the horn) pointed out a few rhi­nos. “You don’t need to go into the sanc­tu­ary to see them,” he says. “They come right up to the road!”

Besides the one-horned rhino, Kazi­ranga is also sup­posed to have a heavy den­sity of tigers : 86 accord­ing to the last cen­sus count. But you still have to be lucky to see one : it’s a large sanc­tu­ary spread over more than 400 square kms of swamps, jun­gle and ele­phant grass, and is sit­u­ated in the 2 dis­tricts of Golaghat and Nagaon.

It is also the only reserve for the one-horned rhino. Besides the great one-horned Indian rhino, the other major wild attrac­tions include Indian ele­phants, Indian bison, swamp & hog deer, sloth bears, tigers, leop­ards, jun­gle cats, otters, hog cadgers, capped lan­gurs, Hoolock gib­bons, wild boar, jackal, wild buf­falo, pythons, mon­i­tor lizards, etc. (source: Kazi­ranga National Park)

It’s also a birdwatcher’s par­adise and one nat­u­ral­ist who has done a lot of work in this area is Maan Barua, a nat­u­ral­ist and ornithologist.

~~

On our first day there, we have booked the evening jeep safari. Accom­pa­ny­ing the jeep dri­ver is a guard (his gun doesn’t seem to be very impres­sive, but I’m hop­ing that he doesn’t need to use it).

The best sight­ing turns out to be a huge python wrapped around a tree. The guide informs us that it has been wrapped around that par­tic­u­lar branch for a few days. It’s quite a fas­ci­nat­ing crea­ture and I would have loved to see it move, though I had no inten­tion of being under that tree if it hap­pened to let go of the branch for some reason.

We con­tinue into the sanc­tu­ary and see lots of swamp and hog deer. A few wild ele­phants roam­ing around in the grassy areas. We also see a big herds of ele­phants emerg­ing, washed and clean after a dip in the waters. And rhi­nos of course. Though we don’t really get a close view of them : they’re rather shy crea­tures and pre­fer to chomp on their daily dose of grass at a distance.

Lots of birds around and for the avid bird­watcher, there’s a sanc­tu­ary to the east, our guide tells us. That’s where you can walk around. Here of course, you can’t get out of the vehicle.

After an hour or so, the first safari of the sanc­tu­ary over, we head back to the Lodge and step into the Buf­falo Bar and the adjoin­ing restau­rant for some food. It starts to rain heav­ily in the evening and as the heav­ens open up, I won­der if we can do the morn­ing safari.

~~

Despite the slow, steady driz­zle, we’re told that the ele­phant safari is on.

Rai Bahadur turns out to be a strong and long-time mem­ber of the sanc­tu­ary. He doesn’t com­plain as the 4 of us climb aboard. Slowly, with Rai Bahadur’s steady but swing­ing steps, we make our way into the thick grassland.

Soon we see other trav­ellers who are on ele­phants too, try­ing to sight more of the endan­gered rhino.

Rai Bahadur (who was born with only one tusk) is as steady as a rock and I don’t think he has any chances of slip­ping. There’s a lit­tle bit of driz­zle and we won­der if we’ll sight any­thing. But we do see a few rhi­nos and a few wild buf­faloes in the wet grass­land area. And iron­i­cally, I notice that there are more peo­ple in the jun­gle than rhinos.

Rai Bahadur ambles along, for him it must be yet another day out in the jun­gle. A cou­ple of baby ele­phants are also out on the safari along with their moth­ers. One of them is tied up to her mom with a thick rope and we ask why.

“He’s a naughty one and keeps stray­ing off, that’s why we tie him up,” explains the mahout. The other lit­tle ele­phant is more obe­di­ent : his mother keeps giv­ing him a lit­tle push once in a while with her trunk to keep it on the path : it’s quite a cute sight to witness.

~~

There’s a strange still­ness in the air, despite the fact that the sanc­tu­ary is filled with ani­mals. Except for a few bird calls punc­tu­at­ing the silence, there’s just a soft driz­zle and the sound of Rai Bahadur’s footfall.

The ani­mals seem to have found good hid­ing places from the rain. An hour goes by and then it’s time to head back to the point where our vehi­cles are parked and get back to the com­fort of the cars.

~~

It’s been quite an expe­ri­ence com­ing back after so many years. I wished we had a lit­tle more time to spend. It’s def­i­nitely going to take at least a week to enjoy the sanc­tu­ary fully. I’ll be back again, I think to myself (and like every other place I visit).

We get into the wait­ing car, to be taken back to the lodge. As I turn around for a part­ing view, I catch sight of Rai Bahadur dis­ap­pear­ing into the jun­gle with his next batch of visitors.

Pho­tos: the Flickr Album

Get­ting there/Acco: Kazi­ranga is acces­si­ble from Guwa­hati and is about 6–7 hours away. Acco­mo­da­tion at Kazi­ranga includes Wild Grass, Bon Habi and Aranya For­est Lodge. We stayed at Aranya, which was the most rea­son­ably priced out of the lot.

There are jeep and ele­phant safaris into the jun­gle in the morn­ing and evenings. Get more details here.

The sanc­tu­ary is closed dur­ing the mon­soons dur­ing which flood­ing occurs. Win­ter is a good time to visit.

More North East Chron­i­cles
– A mag­i­cal evening by Umiam lake
– Back to School again: Loreto Con­vent
– Wish­ing for rain in Cher­ra­pun­jee
– Mag­i­cal Mawlyn­nong: Life on stilts