It was the end of nearly three weeks of exploring the remotest corners of the northeast India and I had traveled along the Siang River to the Indo-china border and from there drove far south and East to visit some remote tribal cultures along the Indo-burma border. Tired and exhausted I decided to have a night halt in Kaziranga before heading back to Guwahati to catch my flight to Bangalore. In the evening a sudden and heavy outburst of rain shut out all chances of me entering Kaziranga for a drive. There was also a workshop for all the officials being organised by ATREE – so it was a good opportunity to meet and talk with many of the officials who were present. Just before dinner time RFO Boro received a phone call requesting an armed guard inside the park and Mr. Boro asked if I could drop off some provisions and the guard inside the park. I of course was more than ready to help in any way, especially if it meant visiting the park. A few kilometers into the park and I see the brightly banded body of a snake enter and retreat from the road in our headlight. I knew exactly what it was, but now we had passed it and in the darkness it would be hard to find. I rushed out with my headlamp and behind me an armed guard and up on a mound was the motionless body of a Banded Krait Bungarus fasciatus - A highly nocturnal venomous snake out hunting other snakes.

Sandesh Kadur with Banded Krait - Kaziranga

It’s venom is thought to be over ten times more toxic than a cobra, and a bullock recorded to have been bitten by this snake apparently died within 20 minutes. Of course I didn’t know all these little facts at that particular moment, as a matter of fact it was the first time I had seen one of these animals alive and in person in front of me. I had also heard that they don’t normally bite, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so with a snake hook I gently lifted the snakes head and as it moved I held it’s tail and brought it out into the open for everyone to see.

Kaziranga - A sea of green

The next morning I headed in to the park early and all the recent rainfall had converted the park into a sea of green. The grass in some places was over fifteen-feet tall easily concealing large herbivores like Rhinos and Elephants, not to mention all the other little ones and their respective predators. We did manage to spot a distant heard of 8-10 elephants by a water hole and about a dozen rhinos.

A lesser coucal basking in the early morning sunlight