Sreemanta Pratim Agarwala
(agarwalasp@gmail.com)
Quick Facts
Kaziranga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is among India’s top three most visited national parks.
The 430 sq km protected area sustains some 500 species of resident and migratory birds.
Kaziranga’s Big Five: It is home to over 2600 one-horned rhinoceroses, 1200 Asian elephants, 2500 wild water buffaloes, 1100 Eastern swamp deer and 100 Bengal tigers, approximately.
Its ranges include the central range (Kohora), the eastern range (Agoratoli/Bokakhat), the two western ranges (Bagori and Burapahar) and the northern range (Biswanath).
The Burapahar Range office is located on NH37, where one can get the necessary formalities done for the visit. A three-hour jeep ride through the park for six individuals, either in the morning or afternoon, is available for Rs 3500 as of May 2025.
The park is open to visitors from October to mid-May.
The larger Kaziranga Tiger Reserve spans 1300 square km with additions to the north across the Brahmaputra to include sections of Bishwanath Reserve Forest areas and also to the west to include Burasapori and Laokhowa wildlife sanctuaries.
As the monsoons sweep across Assam, you might find mentions of Kaziranga dotting your personal newsfeed more often than the rest of the year. The floods, counterintuitively, are essential to the survival of the park, replenishing water waterbodies and the alluvial deposits that make up this riverine floodplain ecosystem, a mix of wetlands, grasslands and semi-deciduous forests. Changing weather patterns and shrinking forest cover, where only certain areas are protected and highways cut across animal corridors, necessitate human intervention to ensure animals find higher ground in the Mikir or Karbi hills safely. While opinions may differ on how best to do it, this is why the park is closed to visitors every May till October: a time of both regeneration and devastation.
As a wildlife enthusiast with the privilege of a home just an hour from the Kaziranga National Park, I find myself visiting “on the way”, even if it means a 45-minute detour from my destination. It starts with a call to our trusted guide, who has current information about which range is seeing the most sightings — usually Kohora, especially of the ‘Big Five’ with the popular focus pinned on the Royal Bengal Tiger. My instinct is then to choose another range, having been stuck in long, noisy convoys of the iconic Kaziranga Gipsy — and over the last decade, unless I have a companion who specifically wants to see the more populous parts, it has been Burapahar.
At 75, with a point-and-shoot camera that has a decent optical zoom, I drive to Burapahar at the drop of a hint, hat firmly on head. Feeling a sense of kinship both with the name (that literally translates to the old hill) and its quieter appeal, far from the madding crowds. As you pass through the Burapahar entry gate, you are immediately in the thick of forested terrain with large water bodies at the foot of low hills to the west. By November migratory water birds are noisily making it their winter home. The winding wooded track travels northward to the watchtower, from where one can see Asiatic water buffalo grazing on the sandy patches of the Brahmaputra River. The tall trees at the foot of the hills hold the Giant Malayan Squirrel, and the lucky may come across a family of Hoolock Gibbons, as we once did. The forested areas abound in a variety of avian species, and if you are a birder, oriental pied hornbills, fish eagles, owls, kingfishers, bee-eaters, hoopoes, green-billed malkohas and, sometimes, vultures will keep you busy.
The jeep safari then takes you east into the low open grassland interspersed with beels and the Mora Dipholu riverbed. This is tiger country and also an ideal habitat for larger mammals like rhinos, buffaloes and swamp deer. On these sojourns, often our accompanying forest guard’s mobile phone will ring with news of a tiger that has been sighted in the other ranges while we watch an eagle swoop in to snatch a fish that the otter was making a leap for. Of the many things the wild teaches you, the most immediate is patience and to find joy in the present. Even though Kaziranga has among the highest densities of tiger populations, sightings are rare compared to other protected areas; perhaps that’s what makes a chance glimpse even more precious. The terrain with tall grasses is perfect camouflage, and even if you don’t see tigers, chances are they’ve seen you.
But in January 2024, on a trip with two of my college mates, we chanced upon an old tiger taking a nap, oblivious of the hog deer and rhinos grazing nearby. We spent about thirty minutes just watching the feline and a curious rhino who stealthily ventured closer. It was quiet. The tiger was asleep till the scent of the rhino startled it out of its siesta. The big cat hightailed it into the tall elephant grass, the rhino no match for its agility.
In April this year we had another memorable sighting when I was visiting Burapahar Range with my wife and daughter. This time it was a tigress hardly 40 metres from our vehicle feeding on loamy soil. The forest guard accompanying us opined that she was most probably a recuperating mother engaged in postnatal self-care. She did look a bit under the weather as she slowly got to her feet, turned her head to look at us and disappeared into the bushes.
This year the park authorities had announced closure from the 19th of May. So we squeezed in a last visit a few days ahead. The early rains had turned the landscape a lush green. Just five minutes into the park and we were amidst a herd of some 35 wild elephants. There were at least six baby jumbos sticking very close to their mothers. Some of the herd were already in the beel to our left, twirling their trunks with great dexterity to get the mud off the water plants they were feeding on. Others were crossing the path our vehicles waited on. A dozen more were grazing to our right. We had to stay put for an hour or so before we could continue our safari to the northern boundary. On our return the herd had descended onto the lower grassy terrain, blocking our access to the eastern section of the range, thus cutting short our late-season visit to Kaziranga.
Kaziranga will reopen for visitors only after the rainy season. Before that can happen, the park will undergo its annual inundation and rejuvenate itself. Many animals will cross NH 37 and take shelter in the nearby hills; some will succumb to the waters and traffic. While efforts are on to slow down vehicular movement and build temporary mounds, ensuring safe passage through protected animal corridors across the reserve towards the hills is key. Come October the park management will repair the roads and bridges and ready the park once again to welcome visitors to the wild wonders of Kaziranga.