Gustasp and Jeroo Irani
Monday, April 19, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)
The elephant safari at Kaziranga National Park in Assam is a brief affair — a 40-minute ride into the grasslands — but it did ensure a close encounter with the star attraction of the wildlife park: the magnificent Asiatic one-horned rhino. Other sightings include the wild Indian water buffalo and the barasingha, the males carrying their 12-point antlers with ballerina-like grace. The early morning elephant safari, however, is only an overture to a larger adventure.
We entered the park through a long archway of trees which led to a sweep of grassland streaked with pools of water: a popular grazing ground of elephants and rhinos. Here we climbed up an observation tower and gazed out at pelicans swimming in front of a wading rhino; wild ducks lazing on fingers of land stretched across the water; black necked storks balanced on red stilt like legs in the shallows; flocks of birds gracefully soaring into the blue skies above…
Since most of the Kaziranga is open country covered by wetlands and grasslands, the wildlife viewing is not only a treat here but probably the best in India. Around January each year, the tall elephant grass that provides a cover for animals is burned by the forest department in controlled stages and from February onwards up to the monsoons — when the park closes — animal sightings are at their very best. And the park brims with abundant game: rhinos, tigers, elephants, deer, wild boar… Even if it did not have any mammals, Kaziranga would still be one of the best bird watching sites in India as it is home to over 500 species of birds.
In fact, Kaziranga’s conservation effort is an amazing success story. Poachers had been systematically killing the rhino for its horn and in 1904, it was believed that only 12 remained in the forest. Saddened by the plight of the beast, Lady Curzon, wife of the then Viceroy of India, prevailed upon her husband to declare Kaziranga as a protected area. In 1926, Kaziranga was classified a Reserve Forest, in 1940, a Wildlife Sanctuary and soon after, a National Park. Meanwhile, the rhino population touched 366 in 1966, 1,164 in 1993 and currently stands at over 2,000. Though Kaziranga is technically not included in Project Tiger, the big cat has benefited by the protection it offers the rhino and currently the park is believed to have the highest density of tigers in the world. However the chance of sighting these elusive big cats is rare.
Back on the safari trail, the terrain changed dramatically as the grasslands gave way to dense forests that were watered by the Brahmaputra River which floods the park during the monsoons forcing the rhinos and other residents of the park to retreat to the surrounding highlands. There is not much one can do about nature’s wayward ways. But the sight of rhinos gazing in the marshlands was a reassuring reminder that over the hundred years of its existence, Kaziranga had done a remarkable job of saving the magnificent animal from extinction. Now if only they could do something about the dwindling tiger population.
(Gustasp and Jeroo Irani are well-known travel writers)