Trip Report North-East India

December 2009.

Destination Cover : Kaziranga

Our day 4 at Kaziranga started with our decision to take the second round of elephant ride as it was very foggy all along the previous day and we knew that we will not be able to see anything if we leave for earlier ride. We all left for the riding point and met our riding elephants next to the tower. All the group members quickly embarked on their respective elephants and the ride resumed.

Soon saw our first Rhino emerging out of the fog. Soon all the elephants with other tourists arrived

and we proceeded to an area where Soft Ground Barasingha could be seen. Arriving there we saw a fairly large number of Barasinghas

including couple of Males with their magnificent antlers. On our way back also saw couple of other Rhino’s

and fairly large herd of Wild Buffalo led by a big bull.

Later we returned to the lodge for breakfast. As this was our last day in Kaziranga we had planned many activities for the group members. Assembling after breakfast we all left for a visit to the Rubber Plantation/Factory where everyone saw how rubber is made from the latex.

All the group members also had a chance to see a small Coffee Plantation. While going to the plantation we passed a group of young boys perched on long ladders plucking raw bunch of Black Pepper.

As this was a first and also a unique experience for all the group members we made a wise decision to stop and ask for couple of bunch from these boys. It was equally distributed amongst all the group members. Our journey continued with a visit to a traditional tribal village of a tribe called Missing.

It was an interesting visit as one family has wedding in the family and the preparations were on with ladies from all the homes in the village contributing in one way or another.

Returned back to lodge for lunch. Later left for our last jungle excursion in the Western range of the Kaziranga National Park. Our first encounter here was with a Rhino going in front of us on the track. We all stopped to take pictures before it took off in the jungle.

Our journey further down the track brought us to a female with two young ones. It got agitated as we seemed a threat to her calf’s.  In a double mind to charge on to us or to stay back with her calf she ultimately decided to veer towards the safety of forest. We drove further and stopped on the spot from where she had gone down the track in to the safety of forest. As soon as we reached there a loud trumpet re-sounded in the forest and couple of other female elephants took an aggressive posture towards us in order to keep their calf   relatively safe.

We decided going away from there will be the best option for us and left that place. Rest of the drive was bit relaxed and on our way back spotted a lone rhino with a big male buffalo wallowing in the muddy water with an occasional look towards us.