Kaziranga Rhino Floodplains

Kaziranga National Park, Assam · India

Easy4 daysAsia~£700 est.

Save ✓ I did this

Overview

Morning mist lifts off the elephant grass and the floodplain reveals its census: greater one-horned rhinos grazing like armoured lawnmowers, wild water buffalo with two-metre horn spans, swamp deer in herds the guidebooks said no longer existed. Kaziranga holds roughly two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos on a strip of Brahmaputra floodplain, and from an open jeep in the central range you can have a dozen in view at once. It is also, quietly, one of Asia's best all-round wildlife parks: the highest tiger density in India (seen rarely, in grass this tall), hog deer, smooth-coated otters, and winter wetlands stacked with pelicans and Pallas's fish eagles. Add a morning at nearby Hollongapar sanctuary for hoolock gibbons whooping through the canopy. Fly to Jorhat (two hours) or Guwahati (four and a half) and base at Kohora village on the park's southern edge. The park closes entirely for the monsoon, roughly May to October, when the Brahmaputra drowns the grasslands; November to April is the season, February–March the sweet spot. Four days with jeep safaris, fees and a lodge runs to about £600–£750.