Everyone needs a break these days and if you’re looking for a an absolutely exotic vacation in the wild, pack your bags and move to kaziranga for a weekend. Situated in the grassy flood plain on the banks of the brahmaputra, this is the main place for seeing the one-horned rhino. It’s a wonderful experience, once you get there and mingle with nature. apart from from the rhino, you also get to see sizable numbers f the arni(wild buffalo) and elephants. The tiger is the main predator but is rarely seen in the tall elephant grass.Barasingha and hog deer are plentiful along with a large number of wild boar. Birds too are numerous in kaziranga. Access to the park is along NH37. There are a number of hotels and lodges near kaziranga but if you’re looking for a good place to stay without troubling your pocket, i’d say the best place is ’Wild Grass’. Staying there is an experience in itself. The place has been built in the British style of architecture. The rates are pretty affordable to the middle-class pocket and it’s a haunt for the foreigners too(oh, and while you’re there, try the chinese food. it’s excellent). Most hotels arrange trips to the sanctuary on request. The typical tour would be a 1-hour elephant safari in the morning followed by a jeep safari in the evening. However, i’d recommend you take the tour the other way round. A jeep safari in the afternoon followed by an elephant safari in the morning. When you take a jeep safari, an armed forest ranger always comes with you. I was lucky to see a bull elephant chase another one. When we got too close to them, the ranger loaded his weapon( just in case). the rangers are trained to never shoot at the animals. most of the times, a shot fired in the air is enough to scare them away. During the elephant safari, the mahouts always travel in a group of elephants. this is because a bull elephant will attack a solitary elephant if it sees one. We were shown a couple of BBC videos on Kaziranga when we stayed at wild grass so that was an added advantage. On the whole, my trip to kaziranga was an experience i’ll remember for a long time.
P.S: Assam is a politically troubled are. Foreign tourists are advised to contact the Indian consulates beforehand about visiting permissions and restrictions.
P.P.S: the best time to visit this place would be Nov-April when visibility is clear. Kaziranga is closed during the monsoons due to flooding.