Wildlife PhotographyKaziranga · Nameri · Manas.

Day by day

The unfolding.

1. Day 01

   Arrive Guwahati

   Received at Guwahati airport and checked into a riverside hotel. Late-afternoon private sunset cruise on the Brahmaputra under Umananda island, a first chance to photograph river dolphins and the temple-lit ghats. Naturalist briefing over dinner.

2. Day 02

   Guwahati → Kaziranga · Kukurmara dolphins

   Morning drive to Kukurmara on the Kulsi river for a country-boat sit with Gangetic river dolphins surfacing in pods of two and three — a long-lens, low-angle shoot from the water line. Continue four hours east to Kaziranga and a forest-edge lodge. Afternoon Western (Bagori) range jeep safari for first-light rhino portraits in the elephant grass.

3. Day 03

   Kaziranga — Central range

   Pre-dawn departure for the Central (Kohora) range with mist over the beels — the photographer's classic rhino, wild buffalo, hog deer and swamp deer compositions, with a strong chance of Pallas's and grey-headed fish eagle on dead snags. Mid-morning hide at a water-body. Rest in heat. Late-afternoon return to the Central range for golden-hour light over the grassland.

4. Day 04

   Kaziranga — Eastern range

   A full day in the quieter Eastern (Agoratoli) range, drier and birdier — wintering bar-headed and greylag geese, spot-billed pelicans, four eagle species, three harriers and a hard-but-real chance of Bengal florican in display. Afternoon at Kaziranga's interpretation tower over a marsh.

5. Day 05

   Kaziranga → Jorhat · Hoollongapar gibbon

   Morning two-hour walk inside the Hoollongapar reserve forest for the western hoolock gibbon — India's only ape — calling at dawn through the canopy, with capped langur and slow loris records as bonuses. Visit the Tocklai Tea Research Institute, the oldest in the world, then check into a heritage planter's bungalow.

6. Day 06

   Jorhat → Nameri

   Drive (about six hours) west along the north bank to Nameri National Park, on the Jia Bhoroli river at the Arunachal border. Lodge in safari tents under tall sal. Evening river walk for ibisbill and great thick-knee on the gravel banks.

7. Day 07

   Nameri — Jia Bhoroli rafting & forest walks

   Pre-dawn raft descent of the Jia Bhoroli with a forest department guard for white-winged duck, ibisbill, three sand-piper species and small parties of crested kingfisher. Lunch back at camp. Afternoon walking-only safari (Nameri does not allow jeeps inside) for hornbill, broadbill and a chance of clouded leopard pugmarks on the trail.

8. Day 08

   Nameri → Manas

   Long drive (about eight hours) west to Manas National Park on the Bhutan border. Check into a forest lodge by the Bansbari gate; bonfire briefing.

9. Day 09

   Manas — Bansbari range & Bodo villages

   Pre-dawn jeep safari in the Bansbari range with the Mathanguri viewpoint over the Manas river coming down from Bhutan — golden langur, wild elephant, hispid hare and a real (though hard) chance of pygmy hog. Afternoon at a Bodo tribal village adjoining the park for eri-silk weaving on bamboo looms in the courtyard.

10. Day 10

    Manas → Guwahati · Panbazar bat colony

    Drive (about four hours) back to Guwahati. Evening at the Panbazar riverside for the famous Indian flying fox colony lifting off the rain trees at dusk against the Brahmaputra sky.

11. Day 11

    Departure

    Morning at Kamakhya temple on the hill above the city, then transfer to Guwahati airport for the onward flight.