SPEAKER’S REPORT: Trip to India

For this trip in February 2018, there were four of us and we decided to concentrate on visiting National Parks and spend three to four nights in each area. The first park we visited was Kaziranga National Park in the state of Assam in the north east corner of India. To reach it we flew from Kolkata to Guhwati and then had a five-hour road trip to Kaziranga. We passed through some beautiful lush country where many crops were being grown. On reaching Diphlu River Lodge, which consisted of comfortable high set wooden cottages, Peter and I were given the Cottage that Wills and Kate had slept in.

The park is renowned for its birdlife. It has two thirds of India’s species, and we certainly saw many of these, our guide and driver were both very knowledgeable and knew exactly where the birds would be. The park also has over 2000 one-horned rhino; this is about 70% of all the wild rhinos in India and Nepal. They are a big attraction for tourists but are still being poached for their horns which are sold to Asian markets to be ground up for traditional medicines. To combat this trade there is a considerable anti-poaching team constantly in the park.

We at last got a glimpse of one old tiger which appeared to have an abscess on its front leg which it had had for some time. Our guide told us that sick animals were not allowed to be treated by Vets although in other states they were treated.

Travelling by air and train we arrived in the state of Utterakhand to visit Corbett Park. We found that travelling by train was by far the best transport, as it was punctual and relaxing with good service. The park is in the foothills of the Himalayas and is very well watered with glacial rivers and big areas of Sal forest. Again, the birdlife was prolific, and we had many good sightings. There are wild elephant in the park, also some domesticated ones. These are no longer ridden by tourists hunting for tigers as it has been found to be painful for their backs to carry tourists.

We only saw one tigress here but had amazing views of her as she crossed in front of our Jeep, went down the bank and swam across the river. We were surprised how habituated she was to humans; there were about 10 jeeps following her and she didn’t appear at all concerned.

Next stop was Ranthambore in Rajasthan. This is another park renowned for Tigers and again we had very good views of them. The park has many different areas with different habitats including some beautiful lakes with many water birds, crocodiles and swamp deer. A rare animal to be seen here is the insectivorous sloth bear which feeds on insects and also honey. We saw a mother and two cubs who were enjoying themselves playing and rolling around in a fluffy ball.

Finally, we went to look for leopards at Jawai Park. It was a rocky area overlooking a large dam and the leopard live in the caves dotted around the hills. They have coexisted with the local villagers for many years; occasionally they take sheep or goats in which case the villagers are reimbursed by the Government as tourism is a good money earner. We only had a brief glimpse of a young leopard about a kilometer away, but we enjoyed learning about the villagers and their farming methods.

(Report and photos by Alison Evans)