Enjoy a late afternoon game drive in Kaziranga National Park, a great time to spot wildlife due to the cooling temperatures. Kaziranga is one of the world’s key wildlife sanctuaries. It protects one of the few remaining regions of natural habitat in the terai, the lowland valleys in the foothills of the mighty Himalaya. Since it is located on the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, Kaziranga is seasonally flooded by monsoon rains and floods carried down by the great river. The park is characterized by “grass jungle” in which floodplains of tall elephant grass intersperse with tracts of tropical forest. Numerous marshes and oxbow lakes dot the floodplains. It is exceptionally rich wildlife habitat. The park (which is 430 square kilometres in area) is the stronghold of the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, with a population of more than 1,100. Two other giant (and endangered) mammals also find sanctuary in Kaziranga: the Asian elephant and the wild water buffalo. The latter, a formidable beast, should not be confused with its cousin, the domesticated water buffalo as the wild species has a spread of horns wider than that of the African buffalo, and it is equally aggressive. The Asian elephant is, of course, as fascinating as the African species, and we can compare and contrast the similarities and differences between them. Observations of wild elephants are particularly good here, especially when they come down to jungle-fringed lagoons to drink and bathe. Enjoy your game drive by jeep going in search of these remarkable animals.