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Family Wildlife Adventures Website

Eastern India

ASSAM

The Indian state of Assam holds a special attraction for Asia wildlife enthusiasts, boasting four important national parks and three UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites. Little-visited and rather tucked away in the north-east of the subcontinent, Assam is a land of mighty rivers and fertile plains laid out in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Remarkable for the richness of its flora and fauna, its natural history represents a melting pot of east and west – many of the species found here are at either the westernmost or easternmost points of their range. Assam’s three most rewarding national parks are Manas, Nameri and Kaziranga.

In Manas alone, a total of 55 mammals have been recorded, and some of the most sought-after of the Himalayan foothill bird species live here. India’s iconic mammal life is also well represented in Assam – one can spot Asian elephant, tiger, or even a critically endangered pygmy hog while exploring the state’s extensive wetland, forest and grassland habitats.

Nameri National Park

The landscape of this important park is characterized by semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests. Over 600 species of plants and more than 30 species of mammals have been recorded here - the park is an important conservation area for tiger and Asian elephant. Birdlife is varied and abundant, with nearly 400 species finding their way onto an ever-expanding checklist. Perhaps Nameri’s most important avian residents are its white-winged ducks – a sizeable population of this highly endangered duck is known to inhabit the park’s forest pools, and this forms the core of the remaining Indian population of 150-odd pairs. The dazzling array of birdlife also includes white-cheeked partridge; great, wreathed, crested and pied kingfishers; Amur falcon; grey-headed, and lesser fish eagles; slender-billed oriole; Jerdon’s babbler; long-billed plover and ibisbill.

Manas National Park

Extending into Bhutan, Manas National Park forms one of the largest uninterrupted protected areas on the subcontinent and is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site. A total of 55 mammals have been recorded, and some of the most sought-after Himalayan foothill bird species are found there, including the Bengal florican, great hornbill, ibisbill and red-headed trogon.
Passing through the heart of the park is the Manas River, a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra. The landscape is a mixture of dense rainforests and grasslands providing ideal habitat for the rich birdlife, a variety of rare and endangered endemics such as golden langurs, and more readily recognisable Indian mammals such as tiger, elephant and rhino.

Kaziranga National Park

Another of Assam’s UNESCO Natural World Heritage Sites, the park comprises large stretches of swamp interspersed with broad tracts of tall elephant grass, evergreen forests, watercourses and reed beds. With its backdrop of the mighty Himalayas, Kaziranga is on an impressive scale – with wildlife to match: it is one of the best places to see the rare great Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Indian elephants are plentiful, as are herds of wild water buffalo, grazing sambar, hog deer and swamp deer, keeping a wary look-out for predators – leopard and tiger roam the park too. Kaziranga boasts a tremendously varied bird list. The wetlands attract storks, herons, wildfowl and waders, with significant numbers of spot-billed pelicans, bar-headed geese, and black-necked, greater and lesser adjutant stork. From time to time the waterbirds are alarmed by the appearance of grey-headed or Pallas’s fish-eagles, just two of an impressive population of raptors. Pied harriers glide over the waving grasses, occasionally startling a Bengal florican or a noisy flock of red-breasted parakeets.

Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

The only species of ape found in India, the endangered hoolock gibbon (Bunopithecus hoolock hoolock) occupies the forests of the Northeastern region of India. Being a true arboreal species, the ape depends on high canopy for its survival. Habitat destruction, fragmentation and alteration, and hunting have been identified as threats to the species all along its distribution range, the primary being the loss of natural habitat. The Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in the Jorhat district of Assam is the only protected area in India to be named after a primate species. The sanctuary, with an area of 20.98 hectare is situated on the south bank of the Great Brahmaputra river system. Despite providing protection for seven species of primates, it was formed mainly for the conservation of the hoolock gibbon. The sanctuary also harbours diverse bird and mammal life.

Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (National Park)

Created in 1973 and constituted as a Reserve Forest in 1978, the Sunderbans was established as a National Park in 1984, listed as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site in 1985 and declared a Biosphere Reserve four years later. The Sunderbans (sometimes spelled Sundarbans) is part of a vast estuary in the Bay of Bengal. Its mangrove forests are the only tiger habitat of its kind, with an estimated 270 tigers found there. The trees and other wildlife have adapted to the estuarine conditions of high salinity, lack of soil, erosion and daily inundation by high tides. Fishing cat, spotted deer, wild boar, water monitor, estuarine crocodile, river terrapin, olive Ridley turtle, ground turtle, king crab, rhesus monkey and mud skipper can be seen there as well as 230 or so bird species. These include red junglefowl, lesser whistling-duck, cotton pygmy-goose, streak-throated woodpecker, coppersmith barbet, brown-winged, stork-billed, black-capped, pied and collared kingfishers, Brahminy kite and white-bellied fish eagle.