I have visited a few tiger reserves before, and the highlight of the trip depends on whether you spot a tiger or not! I always feel that the beauty of a forest gets overshadowed by expectations, so one should just go without any, and enjoy whatever the forest churns out- be it birds, animals, greenery, reptiles, colours, whatever. I don’t know why I thought of Kaziranga but I did…probably because people primarily go there to see rhinos and not tigers. Kaziranga is a home to some 2300 odd rhinos (It is also home to around 106 tigers – there I go again) .
I contacted Piran (from my Sikkim trek) who is the person I go to for anything to do with North-East and asked him to chart out something for me. He decided to club in Nameri, Jorhat & Majuli with Kaziranga but told me to keep the group size to a maximum of 4 or multiples of 4 to optimise the safari costs. Finally a enthusiastic group of 4 1/2 set out. It comprised of my dad, Sarita, Lamika, her 7 yr old daughter Rianna and me.
We landed at Guwahati airport on a lazy Saturday morning hoping that a guy called Milan will be waiting for us at the other end… Unfortunately after coming out we realised that the said person had not arrived! After a few frantic calls to Piran and Milan, much to the amusement of the locals waiting outside, we realised that we had a long wait ahead of us. Uh oh… this trip has not really started on a good note!
A grumpy Milan lands up almost two hours later and bundles us up in his Sumo. We first stop over at a nice local restaurant in Guwahati called Gam's Delicacy for some awesome Assamese food (which does a lot to lift our spirits) before we proceed to Nameri. It gets pitch dark by 5.00 pm – something we are not used to. We reach Nameri at almost 7.00. Mr Das who manages the Nameri Eco Resort greets us at the entrance. It is a very rustic place which has a bonfire burning and all the weariness that had built up during the day dissolves. The tents are fully furnished with beds, enough blankets to save us from freezing and loos that have running hot water. We have a nice warm dinner and discuss the plan for the next day with Mr Das.
Nameri is one of the very few tiger reserves that lets you explore the forest on foot. We leave the camp very early at 6.00 in bright daylight (dawn breaks at 5.30 am here). Sushil our birding guide is there before time; with our packed breakfasts, waiting for us. We spend the morning exploring the forest on foot watching quite a few birds new on my list – a blue throated barbet, black crested bulbul, Asian fairy bluebird, Imperial green pigeon, Grey headed Canary Flycatcher, Emerald dove, and a few more.
We also discovered a new fruit called the elephant apple (so called because the elephants fancy it). The the locals use it in everything – dals, vegetables, pickles. Though we were on foot in a forest in which we could come across a tiger, we were not too concerned cause a) we had an armed defence person with us and b) Mr. Das had given us a simple solution- stand up tall, look fierce, spread out your arms and yell at the top of your lungs… the tiger will back off. I don’t know if this would have worked in case we really came face to face with a tiger or not, cause the Nameri tigers never gave us a chance ;)
The next day we went rafting on Jia Borelli and had breakfast with the rare Ibisbill, Thick – knees, River Lapwings, Mergernsers, Ruddy Shelducks, Cormorants, Swallows & Martins, Wagtails, Osprey, etc in the middle of the river. It was a wonderful experience as one never gets to wake up to the symphony of birds in Bombay and here we were surrounded by thousands of birds of different colours singing out to us! It was an extremely satisfying birdwatching session.
We left for Jorhat that afternoon. We also caught a glimpse of two Rhinos with their calves as we passed Kazirnaga. We had another local lunch at a hotel called Pelican which used chana dal in their fried dal preparation… We had no complaints as the food was yummy.
We reach a nice hotel called Earl Grey at almost 5.00 and freshen up. When we try calling Milan to finalize the next days plans, we get to know that the person travelling with us for the past few days is not Milan at all but Ripun! And he tells us very coyly that he used to not respond to our calls so many times as he never realised we were talking to him! All of us have a good laugh over this, have dinner, and call it a day.
The next morning we leave for Hollongapar Gibbon sanctuary. It is named after one of the most endangered primates called Hoolock Gibbon, the only Ape found in India. This sanctuary is more than 22 sq. kms and has the highest concentration of these animal species in the world. In addition it is also houses some very interesting primates like stump-tailed macaque, northern pig-tailed macaque, eastern Assamese macaque, Bengal slow loris, Indian Rhesus macaque & capped langur. It also has other very interesting animals on the list like the civets, porcupines, marbled cats, leopards, elephants, tigers, different types of deer, boars, mongoose, foxes, jackals, etc none of which we saw :(
The forest walk was very enjoyable…It is a very dense forest. We could hear the calls of a lot of birds but hardly saw any… We did manage to see some giant squirrels, a Hoolock gibbon couple with its mischievous baby and a big family of stump tailed macaques. Pradeep our guide tells us that the gibbons are devoted to their mates and they mate for life. If due to some reason, one passes away the other does not go in hunt of another mate but leads a celibate life. We spend the morning in this beautiful forest with really tall trees craning our necks to catch a glimpse of the primates and then rush to catch our ferry that will take us to our next destination Majuli.
We grab something that can pass of as lunch and I am sure none of us would like to remember (which funnily makes it memorable for all the wrong reasons) at Neamati ghat (which in itself is a beautiful place… all white sand and calm water) and bundle up into a ferry with our Sumo. Somehow one by one each of us manage to plunge into the sea of people and squeeze in, shrink in size and sit down. I am sitting at one end where I see a small shop besides me. I find it weird that a ferry has a shop selling stuff as the total travel time is not more than 50 mins – 1 hr. What could people need in such a short time! But I am sooooo wrong! The moment the ferry starts or was it before that… people start scrambling to the shop like there will be no tomorrow - to buys chips, groundnuts, black tea, beetle nuts & leaves, chocolates and God alone knows what else… It is like some tradition, that one has to buy some stuff at the mobile ferry shop! I am almost trampled and have people falling all over me as everyone wants to finish buying and eating or drinking whatever they have bought before the ferry reaches the other shore… lol. It was a harrowing experience because I cant stand crowds!
Majuli experience was the exact opposite of the ferry ride. People are extremely warm and loving with not too many expectations. I think this place will probably come a close second to Bhutan on the satisfaction index (You need to have seen The Lunchbox starring Irrfan khan to understand what I am saying ;)
Majuli, is the largest riverine island in the world, and nestles in the lap of the mighty Brahmaputra. Due to the annual floods and constant land erosion, Majuli today is only a fraction of it's original size of 1256 sq. km. Today less than 500 odd sq km is left. A walk through the villages of Majuli is highly recommended to savour the warmth of the people and their simple way of life. Most of them practice agriculture, fishing and weaving. Boat making, dairy farming, pottery and handloom are other important activities. Majuli produces about a hundred different varieties of rice without a drop of pesticides or artificial fertilisers. Among the fascinating arrays grown is Komal Saul, a unique kind of rice that becomes edible after just 15 minutes of soaking in warm water. It is usually eaten as a breakfast cereal. Bao Dhan grows under water and is harvested after ten months while Bora Saul is a sticky brown rice, used to make pitha, the traditional Assamese rice cake.
We reach Me: Po Okum (or Happy House) in the evening…where we are greeted by Jyoti and another smiling Das (whose first name I cannot pronounce and) who gets us hot water - running… with a broad smile! Me: Po Okum are a bunch of Bamboo cottages built by some people of the majuli community so that tourists like us can experience the simple life they lead. Good food and warm people made the cold Majuli days & nights very memorable. Stay in bamboo cottages on stilts, steaming river in the morning, waking up at 4.30 am amidst a cacophony of bird sounds, incessant sweet pattering of Raju guide, visit to the mustard & sugarcane fields, being offered half a kilo of pure unadulterated jaggery and all of us actually eating heaps of it, seeing huge flocks of migratory birds, trip to the mask making place, bumpty dumpty ride on the roads which have been washed away by floods, walk in the sarso fields, watching gud being made, visiting the Vishnu temple and the satras (Hindu monastries), visit to the mask factory amidst Rianna's screaming sessions, the bath water which deliciously smelled of smoke (which took me back to my village where water was boiled on wood fire), the puchka session, the bonfire session and chat with Jyoti & Raju, blanket of starry nights, are all highlights of Majuli.
We left Majuli after a days stay and left for Kaziranga. This time very wisely, we reached the ferry early and sat at the other extreme of the paan shop, all together. And on our way out just for memories sake we buy amla supari & chips at the mobile shop.
At Kaziranga we were put up at Wildgrass Resort. It is a quaint beautiful property which has a very old world British charm difficult to put in words. There is a lot of attention given to details while doing the interiors and everything very painstakingly put together. We thought it must be a very old property… but it was developed by the owner only quarter of a century ago. I must say he has done a brilliant job. People here were very hospitable.
We found the best guide in the land – Nekib and an equally efficient driver Manoj, both made our safaris memorable. The people, the rhinos, the service at Wildgrass, the property itself, Bamboo Groove (the restaurant), the food, the very unique berry & mixed pickles and jams made in-house which had houses to themselves, the elaborate breakfast spread, the innumerable birds (Crimson sunbird, golden fronted leafbird, hornbill, grey headed eagle, northern lapwing were the highlights here) hoary bellied squirrels, elephant safari, jeep safaris, endless waits for the tiger (in vain), adorable deer all around, adivasi dance organised by wildgrass for its guests in which I participated too :) made Kaziranga memorable.
On our way back to Guwahati we witnessed a road-block by the villagers as the previous day a poacher from a local village had been shot dead by a forest guard. We almost missed our flight but made it because of Ripun's brilliant driving. The moment the road block was lifted by the police, Ripun zipped thro the traffic. Not a word was said during the entire journey. There was no time for lunch or shopping… We made a very filmy entry into Guwahati airport and got on the flight back to what was indeed a very memorable and enjoyable trip :)
PS: I know I have overdone my essay this time. Please bear with me, I got carried away …what to do I had to squeeze 8 days of experience into words ;) Also I know I have used past tense someplaces and the present at some others… I am still partly there and partly there you see… so still some confusion in my brain;)