Kaziranga and Manas: Two of India's Best National Parks in Assam

Kaziranga National Park:

With a sprawling 430 sq km area under the national park, Kaziranga is one of the largest national parks in India, and perhaps the finest, certainly for me. The sheer variety of wildlife and the high chance of witnessing them, makes the park most worthy of a visit. Add to that the spectacular landscape with beautiful elephant grassland crisscrossed by 4 rivers including Brahmaputra, and you have a feast for the traveler spirit. It is a host to more than 4000 one-horned Indian Rhinos (70% of the world population) and has one of the largest concentration of the royal Bengal Tiger and a large number of swamp buffalos, deer and variety of birds.

The national park was first established in 1905 as a Reserve Forest which was converted into a Wildlife sanctuary in 1950 and was declared as a National Park in 1974. With increasing tiger population, Kaziranga was also declared as a Tiger Reserve in 2006. The UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage Site in 1985 for its unique natural habitat. It describes the park as the single largest undisturbed and representative of Brahmaputra valley flood plain.

Elephant safari timings:

5.30 AM- 6.30AM and 6.30 AM to 7.30 AM; it's better to take the earlier one. When I went there, I had to book a ride at the gate only; there was no online method. So, I had to reach there well before 5 AM to book a ride; otherwise, I would have missed that day! I took a 1 hour elephant ride and then enjoyed substantial time within the periphery of the park.

Jeep safari timings: 8.00 to 10.00 AM and 2.00 to 4.00 PM.

Manas National Park:

Another spectacular national park, Manas is in the opposite direction of Kaziranga, i.e. to the west of Guwahati, approximately 135 kms away. Situated on the Indo-Bhutan border and divided by the beautiful Manas river, this national park has been declared as a UNSCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Originally established as a sanctuary in 1928, and spread across 950 sq. kms, the national park is also a Tiger Reserve and an Elephant Reserve; host to a large number of other important fauna like the one horned Indian Rhino and Wild Water Buffalo among others. The Rhinos that roamed around freely once upon a time, were extinct during the political strife in recent times; they have been re-introduced in the park in 2006, and are flourishing since then; I could spot one on the outskirts of the park, though couldn't take a good picture.

Safari timings:

There are two gates to enter the park- Bansbari and Bhuyanpura. Though Jeep safari (6.30- 9.30 AM | 10.00 AM- 1.00 PM | 2.00 PM- 5.00 PM) is done at both the gates, elephant safari (6.30- 9.30 AM) is done only at the Bansbari gate. First I took an elephant safari, and then took a jeep ride through the national park till the Indo- Bhutan border.

Follow the link below to know more about the parks, and travel tips.