In Search of the Greater One-Horned Rhino, Kaziranga National Park, India.

Writer and photographer, Chris Raven, grabs his binoculars and heads to the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, in search of the Greater One-Horned Indian Rhino.

Greater One-Horned rhino with calf, Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Photo Chris Raven www.tripsideways.com

By Chris Raven

www.tripsideways.com

AFTER A BUMPY bus ride from Guwhati, I have finally arrived at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India, with my brother Simon and photographer and journalist Lucy Calder. Our mission: To ride on top of an elephant and catch a glimpse of the rare Greater one-horned Indian Rhino.

Assam is located in the far northeast of India bordering Nagaland and Bhutan, and has the best tea plantations in the world. Not only does Assam produce tasty tea, but the popular Kaziranga National Park, first established in 1908, is one of the most highly awarded natural treasures in Asia and a World Heritage Site with two-thirds of the world’s one-horned Indian Rhino. Located on the banks of the River Brahmaputra, the park also has the highest density of tigers, is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, swamp deer and over 200 species of birds.

It’s good to be back in incredible India. The last time I came here in 2008 I saw my first wild tiger in the Kanha National Park, and enjoyed a hot chai with some glazed baba in Khajuraho, who could wrap his legs around his head and lift himself off the ground, which was very impressive. I love India and its craziness. I love the great light and amazing faces. It’s the birthplace of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, yoga and chess, and a colourful, friendly, hectic, poverty-stricken country that’s the second most populous in the world after China (1.21 billion), and famous for silk and woven fabrics (lovely cushion covers), tea (try Orange Pekoe, Assam tea plantation), tigers (1,700, on the rise), cricket (won world cup 2011), spicy food, (chicken tikka masala), men with moustaches (superstar Rajinikanth, Tamal actor), Dalai Lama (His Holiness’s hobbies include meditating, gardening, and repairing watches), Sri Sathya Sai Baba (was one of India’s top spiritual leaders and had a funky hair do), the Taj Mahal (a pretty impressive example of Mughal architecture) and, finally, some bisexual dude called Mahatma Gandhi (a leader and civil disobedience champion, who left his wife to live with a German-Jewish bodybuilder).

Simon, Lucy and Chris Raven riding an elephant through Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Photo www.tripsideways.com.com

Anyway, the following morning at 5:30am, we’re standing at the ready with puffy eyes, a bag full of food and binoculars hanging around our necks. It’s a clear morning, the sun is creeping up slowly over the horizon and our open top jeep rocks up bang on time. There’s nothing like a cold wind in your face to clear the sleep, and after a short jeep ride we pass through the gates to the Kaziranga National Park. I can’t wait to see some wildlife. Ever since I was a wee nipper at the age of six, when pulling girls’ pig tails and fighting through brambles with toy guns was a daily occurrence, I have always been fascinated with wildlife from around the world. I even had a folder with amazing photos taken by world class photographers of tigers running through swamps, lions on the hunt in the Maasai Mara, endangered mountain gorillas in Uganda, great white sharks in South Africa, crocodiles lifting 250kg blue wildebeests through the air during the great migration, polar bears in the Arctic, grizzly bears in Yellowstone and even a picture of a wild fluffy British country rabbit nibbling on a blade of grass (I was six, remember).

Driving into the national park, I see eight elephants up ahead and a group of tourists standing on a wooden tower. We haven’t seen tourists for a while, not since the Adivasi market near Koraput in Orissa. Oh, and we did see a German couple in Nagaland. We climb up the tower and hear our names being called out. The other tourists look surprised by our speedy depart and shake their heads as we’re herded to the front of the queue. It’s first come first service when booking your ride at the office, and the rangers go by the order of the names on the list, so we climb on board our trusty elephant with its large white tusks, hairy head and watery eyes. I smile at our friendly mahout, who has a pink scarf wrapped around his neck, and grab the seat at the back of the beast and, I don’t know whether it’s my large feet, long legs, bony ass, or the fact that I’m sitting on my testicles, but it’s a battle to get comfy. I don’t remember it being this awkward the last time I went on an elephant. I turn to the other tourists standing glum on the tower and wave, they don’t wave back. Three women with a North American, Texas, big hair appearance and, literally the world’s longest camera lenses hanging down to their knee caps,  shake their heads and point over to us. “Shove your camera lenses up your toosh!” I wanted to shout. The mahout smacks the elephant on top of its head using a stick and with a swish of its trunk it cuts through the long grass at surprising speed; but the other tourists are hot on our trail. It isn’t long before they all catch up with us and two bald guys, who are rather over-weight and wearing matching red jackets, bounce by, also carrying massive lenses, and who keep shouting to the their mahout “We want to see a tiger!” followed by the three big-haired women passing along side of us, who throw daggers at me and shout to their mahout “go faster!”

For us, we’re chilling, swaying and appreciating our beautiful surroundings and the sounds of the wildlife, the birds and our elephant thundering through the grass, while watching the sunrise ignite an amazing orange glow across the misty swamps and marshland of the Kaziranga. Swamp deers leap by and our mahout points out a couple of wild boars sniffing around in the undergrowth. Then, in the distance, across the open water meadows, we see what we came here to see – a Greater One-Horned Rhino with her calf. The two over-weight bald guys and the three big-haired women are already there surrounding the rhinos, firing off shots and battling to get the best position. We slowly squeeze through and catch a glimpse of the rhinos munching on the fresh green grass. I take a couple of snaps, but I put my camera down and study these magnificent animals through my eyes rather than a viewfinder. The mother is huge, like a tank, and with armor plates on her legs she is one solid machine.

We leave them to eat their breakfast and carry on through the marshy meadows and into the tall elephant grass. Suddenly, I see a grey body and it’s another huge rhino, this time on its own. Our elephant gets very close and it wouldn’t take much for the rhino to spin around and charge. Luckily, it’s too busy devouring reeds and slowly makes its way through the marsh. My heart is beating rapidly and the adrenalin is pumping fast.  Our mahout saddles up to a ranger on his elephant and passes my camera to him. We pose and smile; a memory to treasure. Before long we see another rhino and another, and another. It’s fantastic to see so many. The rhino crashes at speed through the long grass towards our elephant, snorting and waving its head, almost ready to charge. Is this the moment I had feared? I know these rhinos can be aggressive, and they’ll attack if they’re pissed off, I’ve seen a video clip on youtube. But I have faith in my mahout, although, thing’s do go wrong in the wild, its unpredictable. The rhino gets closer to our elephant, but thankfully turns off sharply and disappears through the long grass away from us. I’ve never buzzed so much in my life, truly amazing.

Wild elephants, Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Photo Chris Raven www.tripsideways.com

We head back to the tower and climb off the elephant. We hand the mahout some rupees and, in true John Wayne style’ I swagger back to the jeep. My ass is numb and my legs ache, but after that experience, it’s worth a little pain. After playing with a cute baby elephant for a while, we jump back in the jeep and head off for a few hours through the national park. We drive along a dirt track, stopping at watch towers, where we see wild elephants, pelicans and deers. The jeep ride is slow, which is great and we stop constantly, scanning the grasslands for tigers too, and watch rhinos cross in front of us and I spot the bony backbones of a family of wild elephants trudging through the long grass a stone’s throw away. It reminds me of Kruger in South Africa. We stop and watch a stand off between a rhino and an elephant; a David Attenborough documentary is coming alive. Who will win? The elephant confidently passes by and the rhino stands its ground, but no battle is to commence.

The driver shows us a family of tortoises before making his way back to the hotel. My day in Kaziranga National Park has been very special indeed, and it’s an experience I will certainly never forget. Simon and Lucy are also amazed by the parks beauty and we all agree it’s one of the finest National Parks we’ve visited in a while. The abundance of rhinos and wild elephants is truly wonderful to see. Despite reading about poachers killing at least four rhinos this year, the Greater One-horned rhino is pretty much a success story here in India and in Nepal (compared to the endangered Java rhino), and it is being heavily protected. Horns are being illegally traded through routes to the Middle East and sold for medicine and to make dagger handles – this is a reality, but from what I have seen here at Kaziranga, the rhino population is thriving. So hopefully, just like the tiger with its rising population, I won’t fear their extinction too soon and, although, there is still a long way to go with help from the World Wildlife Fund and conservation efforts, I am relieved to know that my only chances of seeing these magnificent animals aren’t just in a zoo but in the their wild natural environment.