Kaziranga Nature Camp Report
The sanctuary
Stretching over an area of 430sq km on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river, Kaziranga is one of the last refuges of the Indian rhino. A vast stretch of coarse, tall elephant grass, marshland and dense tropical forests, it has managed to survive the onslaught of poachers, urbanization and burgeoning human populations. Plans are already afoot to extend the park’s boundaries to include the Brahmaputra river to the north and a part of the Mikir hill ranges to the south.
Bounded by the misty blue hills of Barail and Karbi Anglong to the south, Kaziranga was declared a reserve forest and officially closed for shooting in1908; at which time it could claim only a few dozen rhinos. In 1950 the area was made a wildlife sanctuary, in 1974 it became a national park and was finally declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Today it’s one of the few places in India where it’s possible to see the rhino out in the wild, open grassland - an awesome sight indeed.
The Camp
This was the first camp to Kaziranga organized under the National Nature Camping Programme of WWF-India, conducted between 12 and 16 March 2008. March is prime time for a visit to Kaziranga because this is when a lot of animal movement takes place and indeed, this is high tourist season here. The camp was organized and conducted by Preston Ahimaz, Field Director-Nature Camps, WWF-India.
Day - 1
Given the current civil situation in Assam, the participants were asked to preferably arrive in Guwahati by air. All campers accordingly gathered at the airport from where they were picked up at 1 pm and driven to the Kaziranga National Park, a drive that took the best part of 6 hours. As the ordained campsite – Wildgrass – was not available for immediate occupation that night, the campers were put up at the Forest Rest House at Baguri, at the eastern sector of Kaziranga, for the night. Dinner was had at Wildgrass, 20 km to the East and the campers returned to Baguri for the first night of the camp at Kaziranga.
Day - 2
Early next morning, some of the hardcore campers woke to an early start and took a walk along the near bank of the nearby river which marked the border of the Park. This area contained three habitats: the forest (sanctuary) along the opposite bank, the aquatic habitat of the river itself and the near bank which was open, fallow, agricultural land. The combination of three habitats resulted in good birdlife which produced four drongo species (black, grey, spangled (boat-tailed) and bronzed), four mynah species (common, pied, rufous-tailed (brahminy) and jungle), four kingfishers (common, white-throated, pied and stork-billed), bronze-winged jacana, shrikes, bulbuls, storks, black-shouldered kite, egrets, moorhen, babblers and other birds.
A cup of tea later the campers were driven to Wildgrass, their home for the next three days. Wildgrass is a renowned wildlife resort in the country, with a sprawling, well-planted campus and sumptuous food. The campers were allotted rooms, refreshed themselves and departed, after breakfast, for the first Kaziranga safari to the Central sector of the park – Kohora.
The drive through the Kohora range immediately brought out the Kaziranga scenery – vast areas of tall grass, broken by rivers, marshes and woodland. The stars of Kaziranga --rhinos -- were quickly spotted in the tall grass and in the marshes. Hog deer are the commonest larger animals here and could be seen gamboling and lounging near the rhinos and a wild buffalo which ignored them. From the top of a watch tower, the campers saw several more rhinos in the tall grass which stretched to the distant treeline, punctuated by marsh and woods. An interesting sighting was that of the rhinos’ toilet, which these lumbering giants created by their habit of returning to the same spot to do their business. Heaps of rhino dung, shaped like balls not unlike those of elephants but a little smaller, marked these “rhino-restrooms”, some of which were quite large, indicating that the site was popular with a larger number of donors. Several birds common in Kaziranga (though not to the city-based campers) like lesser adjutant storks, wooly-necked storks, barred jungle owlet and grey-headed fishing eagles, were also seen, among several others.
After lunch, without much time to relax, the campers set off in the gypsies for another safari to Baghori, in the eastern sector. The drive here first crosses a bridge which is the entry to the sanctuary in this part. A huge marsh immediately revealed a few rhinos lurking in the distance while storks, red jungle fowl, drongos, stonechats, Palla’s eagles and other birds made up the avian scenario. A 180 degree sweep of the eye from right to left from the top of a spacious watchtower a revealed the true vastness of the marsh which could not be fully appreciated from ground level – and yielded a fascinating sighting of 29 rhinos, grazing peacefully like scattered cattle amongst the usual hog deer and some wild buffaloes. The scene reminded one of the famous African plains which are dotted with wildlife; quite unlike the usual Indian wildlife scenery.
On the return trip, one WWF-India gypsy, which had moved ahead of the others, encountered another vehicle-borne group of tourists atop a bund. The occupants of the oncoming vehicle waved frantically towards the tall grass by the side of the bund, and signaled for the WWF-India vehicle to reverse. This the driver did hurriedly and the campers waited with bated breath and readied cameras for the mother rhino to emerge onto the bund road. After a short, tense wait, the tank-like body of the female rhino, spattered with wet patches, cautiously appeared, with a very small calf in attendance. The mother was clearly tense and nervous, checking both sides of the path before clambering onto it, herding her little one before her. Catching scent of the intruding WWF-I vehicle which was barely 10 metres from her, the ponderosa snorted, tossed her massive head and took a short rush at the vehicle, but quickly stopped and returned to her calf, nosing it across the path to the grass down the other side, stopping to check out both vehicles repeatedly. Cameras from both vehicles fired furiously, and after the rhinos had disappeared, occupants of both vehicle exchanged e-mail IDs in order to obtain pictures of themselves with the rhinos taken by each other. The other two WWF-I vehicles appeared on the scene after the rhinos had gone and had to be content with viewing the pictures taken of the encounter. In the fading light of the evening, swamp francolins (partridge-like birds) calls were heard and finally two birds presented themselves to the group as it headed home for the day.
Day – 3
Early next morning, the campers were roused, given tea and taken in gypsies to Kohora, this time for the elephant ride into the tall grass. At the Elephant camp in Mukhi, campers were allotted their mounts in twos, threes and fours, depending on the howdah design, and set off with other tourists into the forbidden land of the tall grass. The grass here is as high as an elephant’s back in places and lurking rhinos, well hidden within, are a dangerous threat to anyone foolish enough to venture in on foot. The rhinos are not so bothered about people on elephant-back, however, although they will get up and move off if approached too closely. The grass had been subjected to controlled burning in preparation for the summer, but the rhinos appeared to be equally at home in the burnt patches as well as in the green areas. Several rhinos, including females with calves were encountered during the ride which also yielded the ubiquitous hog deer as well as the large, graceful swamp deer in the open meadows. This deer is also known as the Barasingha, a Hindi name meaning twelve horns which refers to the large number of points or ‘tines’ on its antlers (all other Indian deer have only six -- three on each antler). This highly endangered deer is found only in a few protected pockets like Kaziranga, Dudhwa and Kanha national parks.
Later in the morning the group took a walk into a nearby tea estate where crimson sunbird, grey-headed wood pecker, and some common sailor, grass yellow, tawny coster and peacock pansy butterflies were spotted.
Lunch was had back at Wildgrass and after a short break, the group drove off to the Panbari forest adjacent to the park in the hope of spotting hoolock gibbons, the only ape found in India. Unfortunately, the park authorities had closed down the area to visitors temporarily to avoid disturbance to the gibbons which were said to be courting, so the group walked through a tea estate along the periphery of the forest where some interesting birds were seen. The loud, echoing honk of the great Indian hornbill was heard but the magnificent bird remained unseen. On the return trip, the group had to make a detour back to the waiting vehicles because of an elephant which had moved too close to the path for comfort.
Day – 4
On the fourth morning of camp, the campers were taken on a safari to eastern sector of the park -- the Agaratoli range – which is the last tourist range of the park. The ride traversed the usual rhino marshland and grassland, but had much more woodland and forest cover than the previous two ranges. An elevated machan used by park guards to look for poachers was seen – one of the many such anti-poaching measures taken up by the Forest Department to safeguard this bountiful wildland and its precious wildlife. A crested serpent eagle heralded a good ride and soon enough, rhino were spotted. A great hornbill flew low between two of the gypsies, offering a good sighting to the campers and a rhino threatened one of the gypsies as it made its way along the path through the tall grass. Several vultures were also seen as were black-necked stork and other water birds. The circuit took the camers right upto the mighty Brahmaputra river which flows along the northern edge of the park, where an osprey or fish hawk and some kingfishers were seen. A cluster of butterflies – crows, plain tigers, common lime and tawny costers -- was also seen here: something not witnessed so far in the park.
Continuing on the safari, the campers noticed tiger pugmarks on the sandy soil, which told of a striped cat on its patrol. A little further up the group encountered a herd of elephants right by the side of the road, which stiffened on sensing the intrusion. The vehicles were halted immediately and everybody fell silent while the pachyderms tested the air for confirmation of their suspicions. After a few minutes of this waiting-in-silence game, the elephants relaxed and moved off and the convoy carried on, when it came upon a marsh in which a tusker and a rhino shared the same bank without resentment to each other. A buffalo wallowed in the water and a troop of several otters broke surface and swam along, only their heads showing, to the opposite side. Moorhens, black-necked storks and egrets presented themselves as did blue-throated and, lineated barbets, orioles, wood peckers and green-billed malkohas. Further down, northern and grey-headed lapwings were spotted by the water’s edge where a couple of swamp deer does grazed, a rhino with the longest horn seen so far sloshed around in the slush and in the distant background, a huge, scattered herd of forty-six elephants lazed in the shallow waters of the marsh. Overhead, a pair of grey-headed fish eagles screamed as their fledgling flew about.
After lunch at Wildgrass, the campers were dropped off at another point along the boundary of the the sanctuary demarcated by a small river where the tall grass was being control-burnt. Here too, a rhino was seen in the dry grass not far from the burning patch; striated grassbirds flitted amongst the tall blades, calling clearly. As the sun went down, lighting up the peaceful scenery to the west, the campers piled into the gypsies, savouring their last day at Kaziranga.
The next morning, the group got into Sumos with packed breakfast for the drive back to Guwahati. At Guwahati, they split up: most campers disappearing into the airport terminal whilst four others set off on a private visit to the lesser known Orang national park, about 140 km north-east of Guwahati, close to the Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh borders.
Stretching over an area of 430sq km on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river, Kaziranga is one of the last refuges of the Indian rhino. A vast stretch of coarse, tall elephant grass, marshland and dense tropical forests, it has managed to survive the onslaught of poachers, urbanization and burgeoning human populations. Plans are already afoot to extend the park’s boundaries to include the Brahmaputra river to the north and a part of the Mikir hill ranges to the south.
Bounded by the misty blue hills of Barail and Karbi Anglong to the south, Kaziranga was declared a reserve forest and officially closed for shooting in1908; at which time it could claim only a few dozen rhinos. In 1950 the area was made a wildlife sanctuary, in 1974 it became a national park and was finally declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. Today it’s one of the few places in India where it’s possible to see the rhino out in the wild, open grassland - an awesome sight indeed.
The Camp
This was the first camp to Kaziranga organized under the National Nature Camping Programme of WWF-India, conducted between 12 and 16 March 2008. March is prime time for a visit to Kaziranga because this is when a lot of animal movement takes place and indeed, this is high tourist season here. The camp was organized and conducted by Preston Ahimaz, Field Director-Nature Camps, WWF-India.
Day - 1
Given the current civil situation in Assam, the participants were asked to preferably arrive in Guwahati by air. All campers accordingly gathered at the airport from where they were picked up at 1 pm and driven to the Kaziranga National Park, a drive that took the best part of 6 hours. As the ordained campsite – Wildgrass – was not available for immediate occupation that night, the campers were put up at the Forest Rest House at Baguri, at the eastern sector of Kaziranga, for the night. Dinner was had at Wildgrass, 20 km to the East and the campers returned to Baguri for the first night of the camp at Kaziranga.
Day - 2
Early next morning, some of the hardcore campers woke to an early start and took a walk along the near bank of the nearby river which marked the border of the Park. This area contained three habitats: the forest (sanctuary) along the opposite bank, the aquatic habitat of the river itself and the near bank which was open, fallow, agricultural land. The combination of three habitats resulted in good birdlife which produced four drongo species (black, grey, spangled (boat-tailed) and bronzed), four mynah species (common, pied, rufous-tailed (brahminy) and jungle), four kingfishers (common, white-throated, pied and stork-billed), bronze-winged jacana, shrikes, bulbuls, storks, black-shouldered kite, egrets, moorhen, babblers and other birds.
A cup of tea later the campers were driven to Wildgrass, their home for the next three days. Wildgrass is a renowned wildlife resort in the country, with a sprawling, well-planted campus and sumptuous food. The campers were allotted rooms, refreshed themselves and departed, after breakfast, for the first Kaziranga safari to the Central sector of the park – Kohora.
The drive through the Kohora range immediately brought out the Kaziranga scenery – vast areas of tall grass, broken by rivers, marshes and woodland. The stars of Kaziranga --rhinos -- were quickly spotted in the tall grass and in the marshes. Hog deer are the commonest larger animals here and could be seen gamboling and lounging near the rhinos and a wild buffalo which ignored them. From the top of a watch tower, the campers saw several more rhinos in the tall grass which stretched to the distant treeline, punctuated by marsh and woods. An interesting sighting was that of the rhinos’ toilet, which these lumbering giants created by their habit of returning to the same spot to do their business. Heaps of rhino dung, shaped like balls not unlike those of elephants but a little smaller, marked these “rhino-restrooms”, some of which were quite large, indicating that the site was popular with a larger number of donors. Several birds common in Kaziranga (though not to the city-based campers) like lesser adjutant storks, wooly-necked storks, barred jungle owlet and grey-headed fishing eagles, were also seen, among several others.
After lunch, without much time to relax, the campers set off in the gypsies for another safari to Baghori, in the eastern sector. The drive here first crosses a bridge which is the entry to the sanctuary in this part. A huge marsh immediately revealed a few rhinos lurking in the distance while storks, red jungle fowl, drongos, stonechats, Palla’s eagles and other birds made up the avian scenario. A 180 degree sweep of the eye from right to left from the top of a spacious watchtower a revealed the true vastness of the marsh which could not be fully appreciated from ground level – and yielded a fascinating sighting of 29 rhinos, grazing peacefully like scattered cattle amongst the usual hog deer and some wild buffaloes. The scene reminded one of the famous African plains which are dotted with wildlife; quite unlike the usual Indian wildlife scenery.
On the return trip, one WWF-India gypsy, which had moved ahead of the others, encountered another vehicle-borne group of tourists atop a bund. The occupants of the oncoming vehicle waved frantically towards the tall grass by the side of the bund, and signaled for the WWF-India vehicle to reverse. This the driver did hurriedly and the campers waited with bated breath and readied cameras for the mother rhino to emerge onto the bund road. After a short, tense wait, the tank-like body of the female rhino, spattered with wet patches, cautiously appeared, with a very small calf in attendance. The mother was clearly tense and nervous, checking both sides of the path before clambering onto it, herding her little one before her. Catching scent of the intruding WWF-I vehicle which was barely 10 metres from her, the ponderosa snorted, tossed her massive head and took a short rush at the vehicle, but quickly stopped and returned to her calf, nosing it across the path to the grass down the other side, stopping to check out both vehicles repeatedly. Cameras from both vehicles fired furiously, and after the rhinos had disappeared, occupants of both vehicle exchanged e-mail IDs in order to obtain pictures of themselves with the rhinos taken by each other. The other two WWF-I vehicles appeared on the scene after the rhinos had gone and had to be content with viewing the pictures taken of the encounter. In the fading light of the evening, swamp francolins (partridge-like birds) calls were heard and finally two birds presented themselves to the group as it headed home for the day.
Day – 3
Early next morning, the campers were roused, given tea and taken in gypsies to Kohora, this time for the elephant ride into the tall grass. At the Elephant camp in Mukhi, campers were allotted their mounts in twos, threes and fours, depending on the howdah design, and set off with other tourists into the forbidden land of the tall grass. The grass here is as high as an elephant’s back in places and lurking rhinos, well hidden within, are a dangerous threat to anyone foolish enough to venture in on foot. The rhinos are not so bothered about people on elephant-back, however, although they will get up and move off if approached too closely. The grass had been subjected to controlled burning in preparation for the summer, but the rhinos appeared to be equally at home in the burnt patches as well as in the green areas. Several rhinos, including females with calves were encountered during the ride which also yielded the ubiquitous hog deer as well as the large, graceful swamp deer in the open meadows. This deer is also known as the Barasingha, a Hindi name meaning twelve horns which refers to the large number of points or ‘tines’ on its antlers (all other Indian deer have only six -- three on each antler). This highly endangered deer is found only in a few protected pockets like Kaziranga, Dudhwa and Kanha national parks.
Later in the morning the group took a walk into a nearby tea estate where crimson sunbird, grey-headed wood pecker, and some common sailor, grass yellow, tawny coster and peacock pansy butterflies were spotted.
Lunch was had back at Wildgrass and after a short break, the group drove off to the Panbari forest adjacent to the park in the hope of spotting hoolock gibbons, the only ape found in India. Unfortunately, the park authorities had closed down the area to visitors temporarily to avoid disturbance to the gibbons which were said to be courting, so the group walked through a tea estate along the periphery of the forest where some interesting birds were seen. The loud, echoing honk of the great Indian hornbill was heard but the magnificent bird remained unseen. On the return trip, the group had to make a detour back to the waiting vehicles because of an elephant which had moved too close to the path for comfort.
Day – 4
On the fourth morning of camp, the campers were taken on a safari to eastern sector of the park -- the Agaratoli range – which is the last tourist range of the park. The ride traversed the usual rhino marshland and grassland, but had much more woodland and forest cover than the previous two ranges. An elevated machan used by park guards to look for poachers was seen – one of the many such anti-poaching measures taken up by the Forest Department to safeguard this bountiful wildland and its precious wildlife. A crested serpent eagle heralded a good ride and soon enough, rhino were spotted. A great hornbill flew low between two of the gypsies, offering a good sighting to the campers and a rhino threatened one of the gypsies as it made its way along the path through the tall grass. Several vultures were also seen as were black-necked stork and other water birds. The circuit took the camers right upto the mighty Brahmaputra river which flows along the northern edge of the park, where an osprey or fish hawk and some kingfishers were seen. A cluster of butterflies – crows, plain tigers, common lime and tawny costers -- was also seen here: something not witnessed so far in the park.
Continuing on the safari, the campers noticed tiger pugmarks on the sandy soil, which told of a striped cat on its patrol. A little further up the group encountered a herd of elephants right by the side of the road, which stiffened on sensing the intrusion. The vehicles were halted immediately and everybody fell silent while the pachyderms tested the air for confirmation of their suspicions. After a few minutes of this waiting-in-silence game, the elephants relaxed and moved off and the convoy carried on, when it came upon a marsh in which a tusker and a rhino shared the same bank without resentment to each other. A buffalo wallowed in the water and a troop of several otters broke surface and swam along, only their heads showing, to the opposite side. Moorhens, black-necked storks and egrets presented themselves as did blue-throated and, lineated barbets, orioles, wood peckers and green-billed malkohas. Further down, northern and grey-headed lapwings were spotted by the water’s edge where a couple of swamp deer does grazed, a rhino with the longest horn seen so far sloshed around in the slush and in the distant background, a huge, scattered herd of forty-six elephants lazed in the shallow waters of the marsh. Overhead, a pair of grey-headed fish eagles screamed as their fledgling flew about.
After lunch at Wildgrass, the campers were dropped off at another point along the boundary of the the sanctuary demarcated by a small river where the tall grass was being control-burnt. Here too, a rhino was seen in the dry grass not far from the burning patch; striated grassbirds flitted amongst the tall blades, calling clearly. As the sun went down, lighting up the peaceful scenery to the west, the campers piled into the gypsies, savouring their last day at Kaziranga.
The next morning, the group got into Sumos with packed breakfast for the drive back to Guwahati. At Guwahati, they split up: most campers disappearing into the airport terminal whilst four others set off on a private visit to the lesser known Orang national park, about 140 km north-east of Guwahati, close to the Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh borders.
