Too Close For Comfort

Kaziranga National Park

Post Covid revenge tourism hit Kaziranga hard. The visitors, locals, economy all “needed” it right then and there. So we got a little bit of insanity as the icing on the cake. Tents were thrown up around the reserve forest; old Gypsies were brought in from neighboring states. Never mind if your driver didn’t know an eagle from a goose. He wouldn’t “need” forest driving training either, it was anyway a 2 hour long traffic jam inside the reserve.

Who didn’t need it were the animals, the residents who we claim to be custodians of. So, push came to shove and the animals started getting their own revenge. Slowly, we started seeing more and more videos of dumb ass drivers in white vehicles getting charged by frustrated rhinos and elephants on social media. Some idiots drove their vehicles off the road and / or flipped them over. Thankfully, no human died.

I made it back to Kazi for the second time after covid in May 2023, right before summer closing. It was quiet then. The carnival had ended but how pissed off were the residents still was a question. I think I was photographing a parakeet when I turned and saw this rhino on the side of the road behind us, chewing and staring at me with an amused look on his face. When he snuck in, we don’t know. He was so close that even zoomed out to 150 mm, I could only get half of him into the frame.

Tamuli, who was driving, noticed my change of activity and then saw the reason. The light, through the trees was fantastic on the subject. He whispered that my guy was too close and he was going to start the vehicle. I think I mumbled back about the light being so good. So my guy stared for a bit. He then crossed the road right in front of me as I was turned around in the car. While he was crossing, Tamuli was whispering about how Rhinos can get upto 80 kmph when they run (an exaggeration) and I was busy taking pictures. My guy crossed, then turned back to us with his smiley face and started grazing again. He then took a couple of steps up towards us. Tamuli revved his engine and brought up the recent rhino charges that had happened in the reserve. My guy started to trot. Tamuli bolted. As we were racing off, I saw that it was a mock charge. Smiley faced Rhino was fooling with us. He stopped after a few steps, turned, with an air of “Oh I got you” about him and walked off. I didn’t say anything. These decisions are best left to the professionals.

Fun ! I think all three of us got our thrills out of the experience and I have some detailed close ups of my subject. Just look at that pretty faced specimen.

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