My recent foray had been to the world famous site Kaziranga National Park. It was a sudden decision to visit this place. Though abrupt I happened to enjoy a lot on this trip. Kaziranga National Park as you know is a World Heritage Site and this itself increased our expectations.
Our accommodation and other necessities were taken care by a reputed travel agent and thereby we hardly had to put in our energy to find a reasonably good place for ourself.
It was a morning safari and I with a group of five members ventured out to explore the greener pastures of a finest wildlife habitat. Dressed in casuals with shorts and tees’, we all set out to find the one of the endangered species of the earth- Rhinos.
Before our safari, we did our homework by contacting the Forest officers at Bokakhat. From there we availed all the good information we could have about the park.
It was an elephant safari and all five of us clamp to one poor mahout driven elephant. It trudged through the park leaving a pugmark on a swampy landscape. Eagerly looking through our binoculars, we were trying to tap smallest of creature passing by. And each time, the thickets did a slightest sway, our heart beats went up in an imagination of viewing the rarest of all- One Horned Rhinos.
“Hey! Look at that.. its deer herd!! We all focused there; in between our mahout uttered words.. which obviously we were not able to make out. “ He is saying to keep quiet. Something is there”. We all settled down quickly and quietly much to the unexpected thrill we had few minutes before of glimpsing swamp deer.
The thickets moved again and this time it was not a small mammal as it had always been. Something majestic was on its way . As we came closer, found two rhinos were making their move to the water pond nearby. “RHINOS” shouted one of my friend in excitement. “ Shut Up” we all banged her back. Disappointedly she sat down.
As I increased my zoom in my binoculars, I realized why these Rhinos are called different and rare. Tough as they appear, the two fondled and waded in the water pool. It was like watching two kids having a gala time. Spectacular!
Click! Click!... all of us took out our camera to capture the moments. We were there for a period until we had enough of the rhinos viewing. Slowly and slowly we covered the entire park with number of mammals coming on our way.
De Facto
Area:
Best Time To Visit: November- April
Best Known Animal of the Park : One Horned Rhinos.
Mammals to Expect: Wild boar, Pythons, Indian bison, leopard, sloth beers, capped langurs, hog deer and tigers.
I visited Kaziranga National Park in the month of Feb 2007. Along with me there were five other friends – Kaushik, Mrinal, Saurabh, Meenal, Sudeepto.
