One of the good things of having a meeting in
Tezpur, was the opportunity for me to spend half a day at Kaziranga. The 430 sq
km park is situated on the southern banks of the Brahmaputra River (Assam) and was
directly on my route to Tezpur.
Conferred as a World UNESCO Heritage Site, the
park is known to house approximately 70% of the world’s One-horned rhino
population and is one of the largest tiger reserves at their highest density
existence. Having said that, sighting of a Tiger at Kaziranga is very uncommon.
In order to make the most of my visit, I stayed
10 kms away from the main Kaziranga entry gate in a very average hotel, but a very
popular with British tourists. The rooms were clean and the food quality was
good. But the rooms itself were very basic and for me that was ok, because – I
wanted to spend as little time as possible in my room.
Since I had basically one evening (back from
work) and one morning (drive to work), I decided to make the most of it and
organised a jeep and guide who would drive me around. The problem of a last
minute safari is that the guide can often turn out to be usless….. and sadly
that’s what happened.
But looking at the positive side, Kazaringa is
a beautiful park. Woodlands cover a significant portion of Kaziranga with tall
thickets of elephant grass, sugarcanes and spear grass dotting the landscape. There
is no shortage of water, and trees like Kumbhi, cotton tree, Indian gooseberry,
and mix of deciduous trees dot this landscape. Grasslands are found largely in the
western part of the park, and is the result of the annual floods from the
mighty Brahmaputra River.
Seeing a rhino at Kaziranga is not difficult
and barely had I left my hotel, when I spotted my first two rhinos. This was
the first time I had seen a rhino and I stopped the jeep and watched these two
magnificent animals graze without any care of the world. (I guess seeing humans
was quite normal for them). The scene was similar once we entered the park.
There were rhinos everywhere and after a while, we stopped looking at them and
shifted our focus to the elephants which were also in abundance inside the
park. Unfortunately, my guide was in a hurry and barely stopped for a few
minutes at a time. I guess he wanted me to see as much of the park in the
little time I had.
It gets dark in Kaziranga quite early and by
five in the evening I was back in my hotel. The next morning, we entered the
park from a different gate, and were greeted by towering elephant grass on both
sides of the road. Barely had we driven for a minute, when we spotted two
one-horned rhinoceros. I was still adjusting the aperture of my camera, when
the driver drove off and that pissed me off.
I put my foot down. This was my safari and I
wanted to enjoy the park at a leisurely pace. I also wanted to do some birding
and if my guide was in a hurry, then I would end up seeing nothing. So, with the
added incentive of a few hundred rupees, my guide and I reached an
understanding and for the next two hours, we spent less time on the rhinos and
instead focused on the birds of Kaziranga.
To all birders, I would highly recommend a
visit to Kaziranga. The birding definitely exceeds expectations and even though
my guide had no clue about birds, I ended up seeing a number of birds such as
the Oriental Pied Hornbill, lesser adjutant stork, Emerald Dove,
Chestnut-headed Bee-Eater, Kalij pheasant and the Grey headed Fish Eagle.
Overall I would grade it a 8/10 and on my list
to re-visit again.
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