Kaziranga National Park, on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, encompasses a tangle of water courses, marshes, huge tracts of long terai grass and semi-evergreen forest, and the reserve boasts one of the highest tiger densities of any in India.

The stars of the show here, however, are undoubtedly Kaziranga’s one-horned rhinos. The park accounts for around two-thirds of the world’s population of this highly endangered mammal, which was nearly rendered extinct by the 1990s by poaching. The revival is often cited as a conservation triumph, but it has been hard won. To combat poaching the Indian government conferred on park rangers’ powers generally reserved for soldiers attempting to quell civil unrest: in 2015, more poachers were shot dead than rhinos.

Where to stay: Diphlu River Lodge