You know how in the buffer zone, they keep telling you that anything can happen? You know how all guides have stories about sightings of big animals on the main road?It never happens to me. I keep hoping, but no. Nothing on the main road.Until Kaziranga.All around us, like a wispy cushion on the tea estates, was the early morning fog. Shivering in the open jeep, we had our first sighting of the day - a rhino visible clearly from the main road. Bakul didn't even stop to look at it. He clarified later, "From the main road, you can see anything! The real experience is seeing it in the forest." I didn't argue.Further on, we saw a whole troop of monkeys, playing in wet agricultural land, right next to us. [Aside: I just looked up the range of collective nouns used for monkeys. It's charming!] We stopped this time and watched the macaques, running around, washing their faces, eating … [Read more...]
Agaratoli, Kaziranga
The eastern zone of Kaziranga is much more forested, not primarily grassland. It was joyous being in there, looking at the crazy trees and ferns. Some trees look like they've set up hanging gardens of their own, with leaves of different kinds growing out of their trunks. I couldn't stop marvelling at them.Bright green leaves glistened, almost as if they had been polished. My father chuckled. "It looks like Pati gave them a good clean to make them shine!" My Pati loved to make things shine. Her brass never had a dull moment.In Kaziranga, many tourists are accompanied by a gunman for security reasons. In Agartoli, we had with us Pranab, a gunman who'd been with the Forest Department for five years. Everything was good; we were roaming around cheerfully ... Until an elephant crossed our path.Pranab tapped on Bakul's shoulder. We stopped, maintaining a respectful distance. We … [Read more...]
Bagori, Kaziranga
Pelicans! The safari in Mihimukh showed me not just the Lesser Adjutant Stork and the Woolly Necked Stork, but also the Open-Billed Stork, Bar-Headed Geese -- and pelicans!When Bakul first pointed them out, I didn't quite believe him. Then I saw those incredible pouchy beaks. I stared, filling my eyes with them. I found myself thinking, "Oh, so pelicans do belong in the world outside cartoons ..."At the end of each day in the forest, I close my eyes and let all the images of the forest dance in my head. On our first day, I could see the beautiful forest all around me. I could see the elephant grass with birds flying above it. I could see the sudden pools around the corner, pools that kept taking me by surprise. I could see a magnificent wild buffalo wallowing in the mud.Central and western zones got mixed up in my head. I could see our first rhino. I could see all the elephants … [Read more...]
Turtles, Ducks and Elephants, Kaziranga
Bakul identified the turtles for us. I did not understand at all, not even enough to figure out for myself later. Himalayan Box Turtle? Perhaps. That was a name I discovered. But I know nothing about turtles. Can anyone help?Ducks - we saw hundreds of them. A beautiful orangish red duck was everywhere."Radisson duck," said Bakul. Or at least, it sounded like it. I came home and looked it up. 'Radisson duck' sounded believable enough. A Google search threw up images of Radisson ducks, though. Click there and you'll find out what I found out. The ducks we saw weren't Radisson ducks. That was certain.I looked at the larger picture, breathing deeply. I blinked. Everyone else was still looking at the turtles. I peered again, just to be sure. "Haathi!" I said, incredulous. "Haathi!"Those who have seen only captive elephants have no idea of the magic of wild elephants.And I could … [Read more...]
Rhinoceros Unicornis, Kaziranga
"Haan, rhino hai, udhar," said Bakul."Rhino?" I repeated. I had to have misheard. He could not be so calm. He could not tonelessly say 'rhino hai udhar' and leave it at that. In my head, though, I was saying, Rhino! Oo, rhino! Rhino! Where's the rhino? I want to see ...And there it was. Across a lake, eating away to glory. Rhinoceros unicornis. The real thing.Thoughts tumbled one after the other. Does it get cock-eyed looking around its horn? It really has a horn! It's so big! It's slaty-grey. It's ... it's a rhino!In my experience with forests so far, you don't just go away. You don't say, "Ah, there's a rhino," and peacefully drive off. I once watched a bear eat for almost half an hour. Because that's the way it is.Or so I thought."Chalein?" asked Bakul."Hmm?""Shall we move on?" someone translated for me, as if language was the problem.It was unheard of, unthinkable … [Read more...]
Mihimukh, Kaziranga
How different Kaziranga is from the other reserves I've visited! For one, you can get off the jeep in several places. In each zone, there's a watch tower which you can climb to look at the world around you. And the zones don't have complicated, circuitous routes. There's no decision to make about what path to take, where to go ...The gate to the reserve opens at 7:30, much later than at Tadoba. Expecting the cold of 6 o'clock safaris, I was armed with a beanie crocheted by a friend, in addition to my jacket, shawl and socks. I was set. Safaris in December are just something else.Birds. They just blew me over."What is that?" I asked. "Pulley-necked stork," was the answer I understood. Pulley? I wondered. Why pulley? Maybe bully? Who-ly? It was only in the evening that I had my Aha! moment. Woolly-necked stork. That's what it was!A huge stork, much bigger than my pulley-necked … [Read more...]
Back from Kaziranga
Elephant grass. Anything could be hiding there. (A rhino, perhaps?)Huge birds that made me think of pterodactyls. (Wasn't it enough that the word 'rhinoceros' tempted me to say 'rhino-saurus'?Hog deer. (My auto response, by the way, said I was away looking at/for rhinoceroses.)Swamp deer. (I wonder ... Why don't we use the second part of the one-horned rhinoceros's Latin name? Wouldn't that be exciting?)Cold, cold December days. I didn't know whether it was just the cold that was making me shiver, though.Many years ago, I had a pen pal from Assam. I remember him going to Kaziranga and writing to me about it. I had heard of it, but someone 'real' going there made it a place rather than a name. I lost contact with him years ago, ironically, when emails replaced letters. But finally, I went there, to Kaziranga. Four super safaris ... I still have rhinoceros-shaped bubbles of … [Read more...]
Nightjars
When I think of nightjars, I think of poetry. Was it in "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas? Or did I come across a nightjar in something by Keats or Byron? I think of nightjars and I have the sense of something I do not know. Something that I can only imagine.And then we saw them - both earlier this year in Nagzira, and this time in Tadoba.In the pre-dawn light, little, brown birds sat on the red road. The jeep's headlights fell on them as they sat there. We watched wide-eyed, as unblinking as the small, round birds with their black eyes. We held our breath. It was breathtaking, but hugely stressful.What if they don't fly? What if we run over them? What if they don't fly? What if they don't fly?They waited, unfailingly, until the last possible moment. My heart was in my throat as I watched them finally taking off. In the bright light from our jeep, they flew, their wingspans seemingly … [Read more...]
Back from Tadoba
We were famous, the talk of the town. Everyone knew us; the official at the gate wrote my name down each morning and each afternoon without having to consult the safari ticket. He grinned at us, exchanged a few words, and wished us luck. "Now at least, you must ..." At the end of each safari, as we signed out, he looked up hopefully. We shook our heads, almost delighted at being so difficult, and he let out his breath and gave us a crooked smile."Everyone is talking only about you," said our driver Ashish. "All the time, everyone in Navegaon - the guides, the drivers, everyone - is only talking about somehow showing you a tiger. Yes, it's a jungle, and yes, it's unpredictable, but how is it possible that after seven safaris, you still haven't seen the tiger?"We smiled. The people at the forest gate and the hotel seemed more upset than we were. We felt tempted, over and over again, to … [Read more...]
Leopard II
It was nearing the time to leave the forest, but we headed back towards the rest house in old Nagzira. The guide needed to use the washroom.There are lots of deer and monkeys near the rest house, so tourists invariably stand around taking photographs.On that day, there were people standing in their jeeps, looking fixedly in one direction."There's something there," I said, frowning. "Must be deer. People are always excited to see deer." "No ..." I insisted. "People don't stand to see deer."And that's when someone gestured to us frantically. "Leopard, leopard!"It was right there, at the rest house! And it was in the mood to hunt.A leopard's camouflage is excellent. It was in plain sight, but a little distance away. We could make out that it was there only when it moved. We watched. A herd of deer was grazing just beyond.And then a doe and fawn emerged.The leopard eyed … [Read more...]