Unicorn Land Kaziranga

Kaziranga is a place where the diverse landscape offers you a chance to get up close with magnificent beasts.

Dawn is just breaking we’re all muffled up against the morning chill as we watch the countryside sweep past the , slightly fogged-up windows. A sliver of a sun-ray cuts through the morning mists, setting afire the dewdrops clinging like newborn crystals on the grassy verge as the Trinova sweeps past tea estates and shanty towns coming to life for the day. The morning is crisp and cool and there’s a glorious feeling of new beginnings as we hasten to one of the world’s finest game parks; Kaziranga National Park in Assam, and one of the last bastions of char rare earthly unicorn.... the Great Indian One-horned Rhino— endangered and once facing extinction because of the ruthless hunting and poaching of this prehensile beast... believed to have some magical aphrodisiacal properties in that legendary born!

It’s taken a year of rigorous plotting and planning—this safari holiday—and my friends and I are still pinching ourselves as a reminder that we’ve managed to pull it oft. We weren’t able to catch the same-day afternoon jeep safari at Kaziranga, having missed getting an early morning flight—so we are determined to pack in as much as we can while we are here. 

For reasons best known to providence, I never got to visit Kaziranga when my husband was stationed near Tezpur (another access pint to the game park). It’s the peak season (November-April) and the park resorts arc booked to capacity so we get to stay with an old planter friend in Jorhat, a two-hour haul from the park. It’s also an excellent place for exploring this glorious slice of Assam embellished with stunning rivers capes of the mighty Brahmaputra, river, the lifeline of the stare. 

The vehicle line-up waiting at the gate is hungry to take off on the designated trails in the three tourist zones of Kohra (Central), Baghori (Western) and Agartoli (Eastern). The elephant safari is actually the most exciting way to experience the game park... the problem, however, is that because of the limited number of elephants available, not all visitors have access to the safari. So we were feeling particularly lucky and privileged to have managed the elephant-back ticket on the first day.

It’s unbelievable how silently this great beast can move when need be. Not a sound emerges from the crackle-ready dry leaves underfoot in the forest as it negotiates its way up a steep incline to take us down again to a shaded pool... where, to our delight, we find our first rhino. Standing knee-deep in the marshy water, he looks up unperturbed at our arrival and continues enjoying his leisurely breakfast. Having never seen a rhino, leave alone one in its natural habitat, mycky slicker friends squeal in restrained delight as their cameras go into overdrive. No selfie with this celeb since you can’t start wandering around on foot in the jungle! Pig-eyed and ponderous he may appear to be but, once roused, a charging rhino can never be taken lightly.

The sun's growing heat has burnt away the morning mists and a cloudless azure blue sky vaults over the treeline and rolling savannah lining the banks of the river, Muddy and silt-rich after the monsoons, its rippling surface hides the reality of its murderous and deeply-feared undertow. We regretted the lack of time to fit in one of those splendid Brahmaputra river cruises on offer from the Guwahati-based Assam Bengal Navigation Company  which also offers a cruise to Kaziranga National Park. What a fabulous way to enjoy the Kaziranga experience! Maybe next time. But you should try and spend a holiday at their award-winning Diphhi River Lodge which lies in close proximity to the game park.

The Kaziranga National Park is Assam’s visited national parks. Declared a National Park in 1974, it was recognised as a UNESCO-acclaimed Natural World Heritage Site in 1985. This gave the diminishing number of rhinos in India a fighting chance. In December 2013, the Kaziranga National Park had a record 2,290 rhinos.

Set along the southern bank of the Brahmaputra, the 858-sq-km sprawl of the game park is not only ideal for rhino-spotting, it’s also a designated Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger and offers great possibilities for tiger-spotting as well. We missed one of the big cats by a whisker at a waterhole after a kill which he’d dragged deep into the foliage close by. Leopards are known to hide the remains of their kill in a tree, but the wary tiger, not much of a tree climber, has to protect his kill even more fiercely from the likes of hyenas (we spy a couple lurking in the distant bushes) and hawk-eyed kites (whirling in great gatherings overhead).

The next three days are action-packed. We follow wild elephants and look for sloth bears. We fill our waiting moments enthralled by birdsong and laugh at monkeys’ antics. We wait patiently at waterholes for thirsty leopards and tigers. Then we reluctantly return to dinners of home-cooked fare. By the river one morning, we watch an otter emerge sleek and wet, and then dive back in a flash to catch a vaulting fish. We drive through swathes of rolling tea estates and one afternoon find ourselves, over nimbu sodas, watching golfers tee off from the first hole by the verandah of the beautiful Kaziranga Golf Resort, filled with a stunning collection of art by its owner, Assam’s legendary tea baron, H.P Barooah, from all over the world. 

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