All these biological marvels were already here two thousand years ago, when the first
travellers spoke of this land as a magical place, inhabited by fantastic creatures, above
all one in particular, the unicorn.
Its horn, which they called an “alicornis”,
was a sure antidote to any poison, which it immediately detected and neutralised. This
made it greatly desired by kings and noblemen, always afraid of being poisoned. Some of them
offered vast fortunes in exchange for one.
Romans and Greeks spread the myth and, thanks
to a translation by Luther, it entered the bible itself, where it is quoted seven times.
The Roman Aelianus speaks of the cartazon, a term taken from the Sanskrit kartajan, which
means “Lord of the Jungle”; and Pliny the Elder calls it monoceros, with the head
of a deer, the feet of an elephant, and the tail of a pig.
But without a doubt, the most important description was that of the Roman Julius Solinus, who
defines it as “a monster with a terrible roar, and a horn springing from the centre
of its forehead, of marvellous splendour, four feet in length, and which can never be caught alive.”
The chronicler was not far from the reality. The myth lives here, and it is the Indian
rhinoceros. Its means of defence was, in fact, imported into Europe until the end of the
eighteenth century, as “unicorn horns”, to be used as remedies for a wide range of
illnesses, and this belief still continues in traditional Asian medicine.
Its leathery skin was also used for defence by men, in the form of shields for the soldiers.
This armour plating protects them from attacks by tigers.
The fact that man coveted certain parts of its body brought the Indian rhinoceros to
the verge of extinction, and by 1960 barely a hundred remained.
The massacre did not cease
until 1976, when a division of the Nepalese army was given the task of protecting them
from attacks by poachers.
These characteristic jungles are crossed by major rivers which, in the rainy season, overflow,
forming extensive flood plains.
The climate is sub-tropical, with the summer monsoon accounting for 90% of the annual rainfall.
When the monsoon arrives, the vegetation literally explodes, covering everything.
The flooded plains fill with “elephant grasses”,
so called because of their size, as they grow up to eight metres high.
In reality, it is
an ideal ecosystem for plant-eaters, the many different species that feed on grasses, which
occupy and colonise it, forming an intricate tapestry.
The incredible exuberance of the vegetation is hell for man, but not for the plant-eaters,
who gorge themselves on the gigantic feast that covers everything.
At this time of year, the rhinoceroses and a number of species of deer, such as the sambars
and the chitals, spend many hours here.
Just a few hundred years ago, the Indian rhinoceros
grazed on all the flood plains of the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, but now it
has been reduced to just two national parks: Chitwan in Nepal and Kaziranga in India.
This region, called Terai, forms the northern border between India and Nepal, and is occupied
by ecosystems characteristic of the salt forests and grasslands flooded by seasonal rises in
These are the lands of the Indian rhinoceros,
the final refuges of the unicorn.
Here in the Kaziranga National Park, the river Brahmaputra floods over every year, fertilising
the entire plain with silt so rich that the vegetation is among the most exuberant, the
variety of species among the greatest in the world.
Three quarters of the Park is then flooded, and when the waters retreat, innumerable swamps
and marshes, called “bheels”, remain.
This is when this wildlife paradise really comes alive.
70% of the world population of Indian rhinoceroses live here; for them, and for the Asian elephants,
water provides a refuge from the heat, and a place in which their enormous body weight
is a little easier to bear.
In 1985 this Park was declared a World Heritage Site, and to preserve this treasure, the Indian
government put into action one of the greatest conservationists initiatives in the world:
in Kaziranga there is one guard for every square kilometre.
Another of the treasures of these jungles is the only animal capable of taking advantage
of the meat of herbivores as large as the great buffalos.
It is also hunted by the poachers, but its major concern is finding enough to eat.
The presence of the tiger is the cause of one of the greatest problems – the coexistence
of the National Parks and the people who live close by them.
In the country as a whole, at least 50 people die every year from tiger attacks; between
3 and 5 in Chitwan alone, almost always due to imprudence on the part of the victims.
But the tiger avoids humans whenever it can. It would rather risk its life trying to bring
down an enormous buffalo.
This one has been badly injured in a fight with one of the great striped felines. Its
hindquarters, its back and its face have been clawed and bitten, and it has lost an eye.
With humidity of around 90%, the wounds will not easily heal, and internal infections will
kill it. Separated from the herd, all it can do is wait for the tiger to return and finish
off the job.