 |
In 1926, Kaziranga
became a game sanctuary. Today it is home to the elephant,
the one-horned rhino, the wild buffalo, the swamp deer
and more. |
The Kaziranga National
Park is often referred to as India's "Jurassic
Park". |
UNFORGETTABLE:
Sighting a one-horned rhino atop an elephant.
 Six
in the morning and the air was chilly. Fog covered the
grasslands of Kaziranga. The temperature at Wild Grass
Lodge where we stayed the night was about 12 Celsius.
At half-past six we started our 90-minute elephant ride.
There were eight elephants and we were on the young
tusker. In the middle of the grasslands, we sighted
an adult male rhino and nearby an adult female rhino.
Saccharum spontaneum dominates the grasslands.Returning
from our elephant ride we visited the park by a jeep.
Our sightings that day included herd of swamp deer (barasingha),
mouse deer, wild boar, red-jungle fowl, adjutant and
open-billed stork, egret and heron of all shapes and
sizes. |
Sightings
The most exciting part of the trip
was while we were in the forest, a group of wild elephants
suddenly appeared in front of our jeep. There was an
adult, a sub-adult female and a young calf. The mahout
explained that there are large numbers of untusked males
(makhnas) in the northeast. |
The Kaziranga National
Park is often referred to as India's "Jurassic
Park". Until 1908, Kaziranga was a poacher's paradise,
which resulted in a rapid decline in the population
of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. The declining population
of rhinos forced authorities, in 1926, to declare it
a reserve forest. At the time, there were only about
a dozen one-horned rhinos left in the area. |
In 1926, Kaziranga
became a game sanctuary and in 1947 a National Park.
Today it is World Heritage Site and famous for its rhino
population in the wild, which exceeds 1,000. |
Every year when
the Brahmaputra is in spate, a number of wild animals
are killed. In recent years, NGOs like the Wildlife
Trust of India have come to the help of the Forest Department
in rescuing animals. Floods also cause heavy siltation
in the areas and are responsible for alternation in
the habitat and for uprooting forest trees. |
 Rescue
operations
We visited the rescue centre "Centre
for Wildlife Conservation and Rehabilitation" at
Bokahat. The centre has a mobile veterinary service
used to rescue animals. The animals are kept in large
enclosures and with minimum human contact and are provided
special care.
Though Kaziranga is home to the "glam-set"
of endangered large mammals, our trip to the park helped
document diverse of fauna and flora. We returned to
the lodge before the sun set. As we sat drinking our
Assam tea, I wished I could stay longer at the park
and see the tiger and the other animals. |
THE
PARK
Kaziranga is also known for the
wild buffalo, the swamp deer and the hog deer. And it
has the highest density of tigers in the world. Other
significant mammals include the hoolock gibbon, capped
langur and ratel. The avifauna diversity is also very
high at the park. The monsoon and the Brahmputra's flooding
leave Kaziranga with a comparatively short season of
January-May. The park is spread over 430 sq. km. of
grassland and impenetrable vegetative luxuriance comprising
close-tangled and thorny rattan cane, elephant grass
and tall trees of evergreen forests. |
