After a light breakfast, early morning boat ride (6am) for 45 minutes to get into the restricted Royal Manas National Park. On the ride, you will be able to sight water birds, langurs, deers and if lucky, gaurs.
On arrival, we will be received by the park staff with tea and snacks, while the guide and other support staff settle luggages into the guest house. After tea, settle in and relax till lunch.
After lunch, we will set out to set camera traps along trails and water holes, and return to guest house for dinner. Halt at the guest house.
The Royal Manas National Park is the Bhutanese part of the Natural World Heritage landscape of the Greater Manas Tiger Reserve, a larger part being in Indian Assam, divided and bordered by the Manas river, a tributary of the holy Brahmaputra river. The Project Tiger Park is in a region of astounding biodiversity at the foothills of the Himalayas including large grasslands and savannah and deciduous woodlands, but until a few years ago was beset by civil conflict and heavy poaching. The only park in India that effectively contains all of India’s ‘Big Five’ including Asian elephants, Bengal tigers, Asian water buffaloes, one-horned Indian rhinoceros and leopards. It, however, can add far more than this to its prestigious list of mammals including clouded leopards, golden cats, sloth bears and Himalayan black bears, gaur, the wild cow of India and herds of hog deers. Three rare primates also live here including the golden langur, the capped langur and the Assamese Macaque, and if this is not all, Asia’s only ape, the fascinating Hoolock Gibbon. Birdlife is astounding with a recorded 380 bird species including the rare Bengal Florican, magnificent Giant Hornbills, colourful Kalij Pheasants and noisy Fishing and Serpent Eagles to name a few.
There will be opportunities to do some wild walking during the day looking for track sand signs. River boating can be enjoyed in the late afternoons, once the traps have been set up. Wildlife in this park is generally elusive, and not habituated to visitors as in other Indian parks, but you can expect to see signs of many of its creatures and enjoy the cacophony of sounds from its extraordinary birdlife. You can expect to capture many of them on your camera traps though, used as part of ongoing census data by staff. Very few westerners have been allowed in this wilderness, so you will be some of the very first to have explored it comprehensively. Alternatively, you can hide in bushes and wait to sight wildlife. Back to the camp for dinner and overnight stay.
