Kaziranga, Home of the big five! What are these fives? These are Rhinos, Elephants, Tiger, Deer and Wild buffalo. What is this Kaziranga? Where is this Kaziranga?
Kaziranga National Park is in the Assam state of India. It's total area is more than 400 sq. kms. It is spread in three districts of Assam, namely Nagaon, Golaghat and Karbi Anglong.
It is famous for it's greater one horned Rhinoceroses. It is said that nearly two third of world's one horned rhino population is found in Kaziranga. It is declared as UNESCO world heritage site.
Due to increasing number of tigers in the park, it is also declared as tiger reserve.
Some rivers including Brahmaputra, flow through the park. Various smaller water bodies are also seen in the park. Due to this the park is having dense forest, tall elephant grass and marshy land. It is green nearly all around the year.
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| Kaziranga National Park |
Kaziranga is connected with other wild life sanctuaries like Manas and Pobitora by a chain of small riverine islands. This makes easy for the wild life to travel from one forest to another park and thus resulting in greater biodiversity in each wild life park.
Assam is famous for the beels and Kaziranga is no exception to this. There are many beels in the wild life sanctuary. For those, who don't know about Beel- a beel is a lake like wetland. After the flood, when the river water recedes, some of the water remains trapped in some low lying land and forms a beel. Assam and West Bengal states have a large number of beels formed by the Ganga and Bramhputra rivers. Rhinos love water and mostly found near these beels in Kaziranga.
The water bodies and tall elephant grass are typical of Kaziranga. Elephant grass provides food for the herbivorous Rhinos as well as provide shelters for all animals.
There are many types of water hyacinths in Kaziranga. Throughout the Assam region you can fond lots of water chestnut plants as well, submerged in water. Rhinos love eating these plants.
Having so many water bodies, every year Kaziranga gets flooded in rainy season, endangering wild life. The good part of the floods is that, the floods deposit mineral rich soils in the Kaziranga park which helps for the growth of grass and trees.
In these adverse times of flood, the rhinos and other wild animals travel to higher part of the forest along the Karbi Anglong region. Those who can't travel have to stay put on small strips of land at some height, surrounded by flood water. 2017 saw one of the worst floods in Kaziranga. Many such artificial elevated places are built by Indian Army in that region.
Kaziranga celebrated it's centenary in 2005. It is said that when Mary Curzon, wife of then viceroy of India, visited Kaziranga forest in 1904, to see the Rhinos, she couldn't spot a single Rhino. Alarmed by the decreasing number of Rhinos, the forest was declared as proposed natural reserve in 1905. Along the years the area of natural reserve was increased many times to current natural reserve area. It was named as Kaziranga wild life Sanctuary in 1950.
There are many stories about how the name Kaziranga has derived. Some folktales tell us different stories about it. Historians believe that the name Kaziranga is derived from the Karbi word Kajir-o-rong. It means home of Kajir and she was the ruler of the region at some point of time.
Jeep and elephant safaris are available to go in the interior parts of the national park. Of course for the tourists and common public only a designated route is to be taken by the jeeps and elephants. The forest department officers can travel in the interior most parts of the Kaziranga National Parks.
We took the jeep safaris. There are two time slots for the safari, one is early in the morning and other is around 2.30 in the afternoon. Both the tours last for about 2-3 hours. There are four routes and your guide/ driver will let you know about which route to be taken in the morning and evening. At the entrance of the park, you get the permission for the vehicle. You can't take your vehicles inside but have to hire the registered jeeps which have license from Forest department.
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Information - 3rd Nov.2019
📷Girish Tilak |
We took the Bagori route, Western range with a stop at donga camp. All the photographs which you have seen till now are clicked on 3rd November 2019 morning Jeep Safari. We could see lots of Rhinos on that route.
You can see lots of birds. Eagles, Storks, Pelicans, Ducks, Geese are some of them. If you have a really good camera and steady hands, you can take pictures of flying birds from the moving jeep!!
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In front of the Donga Camp.
📷Girish Tilak |
An interesting fact is that Rhino comes on the same place to poo. So we could see huge mounds of the poop near the road of the safari. It is kept as it is till it gets naturally decomposed.
Though there are many tigers in the national park, they are not visible due to the thick forest as well as the the tall elephant grass. Their presence is marked by their pug marks and by the remains of the animals eaten by them.
There are many elephants and wild buffalos. In the afternoon/ evening Safari we could the remaining animal of the Big Five that is Deer's! We could see lots of deer's at the time of sunset and some elephants.
We started our Jeep Safari at around 2.30 in the afternoon and when we returned after 2.5-3 hrs it was pitch dark. Sunset was at 4.30 p.m.
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| Water body |
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| Beel |
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| Surroundings |
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| Watch Tower |
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| One of my best clicks!! |
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| Water body |
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| pugmarks and mounds of poop! |
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| When the road is beautiful, who would want the journey to end! |
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| Watch tower near the Diffolu river bank. |
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| Jeeps and too many people |
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| About to set! |
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| Last few minutes..and ..gone |
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| Their day starts when the sun sets. |
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| Out for a walk!!! |
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| Must be the Safari elephants. |
Travelling in the forest after the sunset was a beautiful experience. The moonlight was enough and soothing. Leaves of the trees were swaying with the wind, the moon rays shining in water, the birds flying over the trees, lakes and a feeling that some animals are nearby ....and to enjoy this, you are safely travelling in a jeep!!!
The animals were out for drinking water. Even the noise of Jeep engine seemed like too much noise.
The season in Kaziranga starts on 1st November. We were there on 3rd November. We could see large number of people coming in jeeps, talking loudly and disturbing the peace of Jungle. There should be some do's and don'ts while visiting the national parks.
You should be silent and should talk only if it's utmost necessary. You should wear clothes having earthy colors and which will gel with the forest colors. No strong perfumes. If you follow all these rules then may be you will not disturb the residents of the forest and will be able to larger number of animals.
In the evening the cultural show at the Orchid Garden is a good watch. Folk dances from North east are pleasant to eyes. There is a market in front of the Orchid Garden, there you can shop for the handicrafts, shawls and stoles.
#OneHornedRhino #Naturalreserve #JeepSafari #HowToTravelInKaziranga #MustVisitPlacesInIndia #SanctuaryInIndia #TouristPlaceInAssam
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