One-horned rhinos once ranged across the entire Gangetic Plain, but due to habitat loss, big game hunting and poaching, numbers have dipped to under 3,000. The majority are dispersed over the tarai grasslands and forests of northeast India, along the Brahmaputra River and borders with Nepal and Bhutan, where they live alongside wild elephant and tigers.

Two thirds of the country’s rhinos are confined to just one park, Kaziranga, in the state of Assam. 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.

You can add a visit to Kaziranga National Park to any tailor-made itinerary of Northeast India.