Wildlife In
Assam
Assam
is perhaps best-known for two things; tea and the one-horned rhinoceros,
which is found in large numbers at Kaziranga National park.
Kaziranga,
is one of the most visited wildlife reserves of India and figures quite
often on the itinerary of the discerning tourists from around the world.
There are several ways of getting to Kaziranga: you can either fly to Jorhat
and then drive to Kaziranga or rent a car or take a bus from Guwahati. The
route to this national park, which is full of wetlands and some forests
apart from the tall elephant grass, is scenic.
One will find and
women fishing in the bells or ponds, children diving into the inviting water
on a warm day, coconut sellers hawking their waters by the roadside and boys
on buffalo back in paddy fields, in the near distance, the blue hills of
Arunachal Prdesh beacon you will passé the town of Jagiroad, where
the Assam has an outlet and the town of Nagoan.
14kms from
Nogaon is Boroda, the birth place of the Assamese saint and reformer,
Sankardeva, who led a 16th century revival movements of Vaishnavism.
Kaziranga is
spread over more than 430sq. kms and is the place where one of the last
creatures of the prehistoric age, the rhinoceros lives. The lumbering beasts
are easy to spot even from the National Highway, which passed by the
sanctuary. They are best viewed from atop an elephant and there are early
morning elephant rides for tourist, which must be booked in advance at the
tourist center in Kaziranga.
There are jeep safaris as well, and
these can be organized at the center. At the sanctuary, you can sight, herds
of wild elephants, the massive wild buffalo, huge numbers of deer-the hog
deer the bara singla or twelve antlered and the large and stately sambhar.
Wildboar abound as do many water birds as well as migratory species,
including hombills, strocks, such as the great Adjutant Strok cranes.
