International Tiger Day: Capturing elegance of the big cats

Tigers and the Great Indian Rhinoceros are the two giants of the floodplains of Kaziranga in Assam. Kaziranga is a World Heritage Site, and is home to the largest population of rhinos in India. Most of the plains of Kaziranga submerge under water as the Brahmaputra river swells during the monsoon. On one of my tours in the winter, we were watching rhinos scattered in the grasslands feeding, and we had no clue about the presence of a tiger in the area.

While we were photographing the rhinos, this young male tiger walked nonchalantly amongst half a dozen rhinos who were busy feeding on the fresh grass. Kaziranga is one of the unique habitats in India and while it was once known to host the highest density of tigers, it is not easy to see tigers in this landscape anymore. Tigers are known to hunt rhino calves and there is varied documentation of tigers feeding on adult rhinos as well.