Kaziranga
BySomewhere nearby in the pre dawn darkness we could feel rather than see the shifting presence of huge beasts. Carried on the still air the unmistakable smell of elephants reached us, then we heard the quiet shuffling and steady breathing. As the light levels slowly increased we could make out the monochrome shapes of half a dozen elephants and their mahouts securing the howdahs with stout ropes.
We were getting ready to meet the Greater Indian one horn rhino in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. These shy and bad tempered animals are difficult to approach except on elephants. Apparently they are so short sighted that an elephant with people on it looks just like the wild elephants that also roam the park.
Rising light levels rendered a faint colour wash to the waving elephant grass and the islands of green pasture where small groups of deer grazed the short grass. It was delightful to look down on the baby elephants pushing their way through the elephant grass following in the wake of their mothers and being gently encouraged by the nudge of a trunk of their aunties bringing up the rear.
Emerging from the elephant grass again into a bigger boggy pasture huge rhinos looked up in myopic disinterest, twitched an ear and continued to munch. Despite us getting really close they seemed totally unaware of our presence and as calm and benign as contented cows. That was an impression we revised later in the day.
Dawn broke over the eastern hills and flooded the plain with rich light spotlighting the startlingly white egrets perched on the haunches of rhinos and wild buffalo wallowing in shallow pools. Here pelicans perched watching geese and ducks drifting over the surface.
It is always a privilege to ride on an elephant through a natural environment but the baby elephants add to the pleasure. Being able to play with them, closely watched by their mothers and aunties is always fun.
Jeeps took us deeper into the park to appreciate the amazing variety of animals, bird life and even Indian tent turtles basking in the midday warmth on half submerged tree trunks in the river.
Rounding a dirt track we encountered a rhino grazing on sun drenched pasture. Ears twitched as the massive snout searched for a scent. It’s small beady eyes squinted as the alert ears detected our intrusion. At a walk at first the rhino approached, then it trotted before charging us. Our driver deftly manoeuvred behind a jeep sized bush and our attacker thundered past before turning bewildered back to the empty pasture. We were delighted by the close up pictures. But the jeep owner was less than enthusiastic, explaining that ten jeeps had been written off by rhino charges that year.
