Mikir Hills - Roundtrip

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Mikir Hills are a group of pear-shaped hills in Assam’s Karbi plateau. Northern side of the Hills are covered by mighty Brahmaputra River and Kaziranga National Park, in the east there is Dhansiri Valley and Naga Hills as well as southern side is Naga Hills and West is Meghalaya Purvanchal range of mountains.  The hills have an approximate area of about 7000 sq. km. It is a lower elevation hills and the peaks are not very high, maximum of 1200 meters. Some geographers consider this as a part of Himalayas. The hills are inhabited by Tibeto-Burman people, Karbi or Mikir is the language they speak.

I desired to take a round trip of Mikir Hills in the motorcycle and got a companion who is equally interested in that venture. So, I promised to take him as a pillion rider in the motorcycle and fixed the date in December.

The trip started in the morning 630am from Indisen Dimapur. First took the road towards Dillai Bazar, Assam where we reach Mikir Hills and drive through the southern side of the Hills till Sariajan (where another road from Dimpaur join). From Sariajan we take the eastern side of the hills and reach Silanijaan. 

I have travelled couple of times on the side of the mountains, from Dillai to Sariajan and still further in the Highway towards Silanijaan. Each time, I am excited and, admire the beauty of the hills and the simple people who live around. Both sides of the highway one can see the paddy fields. Beautiful view during cultivation time, especially after September to November. In December we could only see the harvested paddy fields. Oneside Makir Hills, the other side Naga Hills, middle area filled with paddy fields and small hamlets .... Wonderful sight...

After this beautiful sight, there is Nambor Wildlife Sanctuary, Karbi Anglong district of Assam which declared by govt in 2007. There is a picnic place Garampani (hot water pond) and trekking place. It is 25 km from Golaghat and 55 kms from Dimapur Airport, and 45 kms from Kaziranga park. Since I visited the picnic place earlier, we did not stop at that place and travelled through the Wildlife Sanctuary. Though the sanctuary is known for many animals, we did not spot anything during our ride.

 There are two ways possible: one is, via Chokihola and reach Numaligarh (which is time consuming because of the rural roads) another, NH 129 and reach Numaligarh. We took the NH 129 and reached Numaligarh (120 kms from Indisen) for breakfast just before 9am.  The ride was very pleasant in the cool morning and kept the speed of 80 to 100 km/h.

The intension was to take 30 minutes break for breakfast. Since the hotels and dabhas were not ready for breakfast and we had to spend nearly one hour to finish the breakfast. Once the travel started again and we were excited to enter the Kaziranga National Park area. The boards on the roadside - animals Crossing – No over Speeding added thrill to our trip.


Kaziranga National Park is a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO. It is situated in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam, and spreads around 430 square kilometers. It is known for its One horned Indian Rhinoceros. As per the survey in 2018, there are less than 3000 rhinoceros in the National Park. The national park also is known for elephants, wild water buffalos and deer. Kaziranga National Park’s main water source is the Brahmaputra River, and the park has numerous water bodies. 


There are few viewpoints in the NH, one of the famous viewpoints in a swamp area in the NH 129 - rhinoceros viewpoint - where we can hire binoculars for 10Rs to view the rhinoceros in the swamp. Soumayajit, my co-traveler hired a Binocular for 10 rupees to view the rhinoceros


Coming back to our motorcycle roundtrip of Mikir Hills, nearly 2 hours (from Behora till Borhola/ Jakhalabandha Town in NH 129) riding in the National Park Avenue. On the one side Brahmaputra River and the other side Mikir Hills. What s sight and what a feeling … It was one of the exciting rides of my life.

 After less than one hour ride from Jakhalabandha Town we came to Samaguri Beel. We want to visit this place as the lake has a history. This lake is formed by the abandoned path of the Kolong River and U-shaped. It is a beautiful place, good picnic spot. 

A lot of infrastructure was done earlier (ropeway, cottages) are abandoned or not maintained now. The road approaching the lake is not paved properly. However, the lake gave a good relaxation and break from the ride. We crossed already 240 Kms and more than 6 hours travel.

We want to take a lunch break, so reached Borghat point - a junction where the road from Guwahati joins - had a heavy non-Veg lunch. The restaurant we chose was neat and calm and the food was tasty. After the lunch and relaxation, the ride continued. Google map showed 157 kms and 3 hours travel. However, I am sure it would take more time as there was road work in some places.

 The rest of the trip was uneventful, we stopped somewhere near Manja to view the sunset and reached home safely after 530 in the evening. The motorcycle showed that we travel 430 kms.