Flooding in Assam

Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

Last November my daughter and I visited north east India where I had spent my childhood. One of the highlights of the trip was riding elephants through the Kaziranga Sanctuary. The elephants ambled through meadows where one horned rhino and hog deer looked up at us from the grass. With baby elephants freely tagging behind the mama we were riding I felt like I was inside a documentary. These scenes are still fresh in my mind it as I read the headlines about the flooding in the area. Nature took an ugly turn in this beautiful place.

Assam's Flooding Takes Toll on India's Rhinos: During the last 10 days, severe flooding in Assam has killed 121 people and 6,249 farm animals and has displaced millions of people, Nandika Hazarika, a project officer of the state disaster management authority, said by phone.
In the Kaziranga park, hog deer account for 500 of the dead animals, Mr. Gagoi said. Other animals that have died in the floods included wild boars, sambhars, swamp deer and at least one elephant.

Baby Elephant Tries to Walk

Sweet! I took this snippet of video at the Kaziranga Sanctuary on my trip to India in November.

NE India Trip - Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

One of the highlights of my recent trip to India was a visit to Kaziranga National Park in the midst of the tea plantations of Assam on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. The park is home of the one horned rhinoceros as well as tigers, elephants, panthers, bears and thousands of birds.

I had done this trip as a kid and my children grew up hearing stories about riding elephants out into the morning fog in grass as high as the elephant's belly. Not much had changed (not even the dreadful bathrooms in the park - yikes folks) but this time I rode the elephants with my own daughter and my nephews Murray and Rydin while their parents slept late.

There were seven or eight elephants in our group and three of them were recent mothers. The baby elephants ambled along behind us eating the grass in their path as we moved along. The babies were so unbelievably adorable that I spent half my time looking behind me and taking pictures of them. The elephants walk right alongside the herds of deer, rhinos, buffalo and it felt like we were in a nature documentary. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be able to experience this again. There was a sudden hush as our guide thought he spotted a tiger in the grass but couldn't be sure. I am claiming it as a sighting since the tigers are much are harder to find.

We followed up with a jeep safari and interrupted a confrontation between a male and female rhino on the trail. The park ranger was ready to fire a warning shot as they started charging towards our jeep. Big excitement!

We stayed at the Wild Grass hotel which was the most upscale hotel of our journey and for the first time on our trip ran into other tourists. There was a Canadian couple, a group of German tourists and many Indian visitors there to worship nature with us.