Kaziranga West Zone
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| One of the elephant calves from the day |
I saw the cutest elephant calves that afternoon in the
western zone. There were two in a group of tame elephants (driver called them the
park elephants) mounted by guards. That safari turned out to be the calves and
chicks special; we saw rhino calves, elephant calves, wild-boar piglets, grey-headed
fish eagle chicks, and a juvenile Pallas’s fish eagle.
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| More calves and elephants |
Many times we had to wait on the road as there were lone tuskers
standing in the middle of the road or a herd of elephants too close to the road
for comfort. Every time Mr. Gogoi decided to wait, he reminded us that we don’t
have a guard in our jeep; we had seen armed guards in some of the other jeeps. We waited
till the elephants moved away or some other jeep came near, and we went in a
convoy (though I didn't understand how the convoy helped). I kept wondering why such precautions; I usually get answers pretty
fast, and this time that was the most exciting part of the safari.
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| Should I charge at these guys? |
At some places the jeeps went on raised roads, which were
about 7-8 feet above the grassland where the animals were grazing. The climb
from the grassland to the road is quite a steep one. We saw two rhinos
grazing peacefully on the grassland near such a raised road. While we were just passing by them, one looked up at us. After that
everything happened pretty fast. The rhino climbed on to the road in a matter of 2 seconds and charged at our jeep.
Man, that massive animal can run so fast. Mr. Gogoi stepped on the gas like
there is no tomorrow. Those roads are almost as bad as Bangalore roads and are meant
only for safari jeeps going at speeds of 20-30 Kmph. So when Mr. Gogoi started
flying the jeep, I held on to the iron bar in front of me as if my life
depended on it and held on to the camera with the other hand, lest I or the
camera start flying out of the jeep. I was still staring at the rhino with my
mouth so wide open my chin was flapping around in my lap. After a few seconds
of the chase, the rhino stopped (almost yawned) looked at the other jeep which
had stopped a little behind us because of the whole drama, and walked away with a
swagger.
After we managed to get our breath back, Mr. Gogoi kindly
informed us that once in a while an odd incident happens where a rhino topples
a jeep. Later when I narrated this to a friend he asked me why I didn’t go for
the elephant ride. Apparently elephant rides are more popular because of the
possibility of rhinos charging at jeeps. I have got forwarded videos of
elephants getting tortured; I haven’t watched any of them, I don’t have the
stomach for that. But knowing that elephants are getting tortured had made me decide against taking any kind of animal rides any more. A rhino charging
at my jeep is a small price to pay for that I guess.
On second thoughts, the roads were not as bad as Bangalore
roads. The Rhino would have toppled the jeep if they were that bad, or even worse, the jeep would have toppled on it's own at that speed.
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| Grey-headed fish eagle, on the lookout for its fish |
The birding session was another great one with a
total of 50 species and 5 lifers.
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| Awesome colours on the Roller's wing! |
Note: All pictures are taken by me.
You can find the eBird list here (more pictures too).
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