India Wildlife Reserves Holidays

Tracking tigers in Bandhavgarh National Park is like living out your every jungle fantasy. Bandhavgarh, like all of India’s national parks, is divided up into different zones only one of which you can explore on each outing. On a full day safari though you can explore all four zones which is a little more expensive but fantastic. The star attraction is the park’s Bengal tigers of which researchers still only know around 8% of their behavioural patterns. Among the huge array of fauna, there are also leopard, sloth bears, four species of deer and a multitude of bird life. The topography is riveting; tall sal trees, sloping hills, vast grassland and thick forest. Each animal sighting is as unique as the next but there’s nothing more special than seeing the distinctive stripes of your first tiger sighting.

This one-hour guided walk follows part of a nature trail covering around 58 acres of land in the forested buffer areas of the Kanha reserve and gives you a different perspective of the jungle. An expert knowledge of the forest is imperative to these walks. The guides will explain and introduce you to the many practices designed to help conserve the land. There are huge sal trees, prevalent to the area, that make up this moist deciduous forest. Then there’s the vast grasslands for which Kanha is famous where you may see barasingha deer grazing in the golden light. Treading through the jungle you might also spot chital deer, muntjac, foxes and some of the 150 species of birds whose natural habitat has been rigorously preserved. The excursions are created by trained forest guides, many of whom have been born and bred in the region. They understand every type of residential creature whether that’s tigers, sloth bears or sambar deer, as well as all the different parts of the park from the forested core to the wild outer perimeters.

Being just a five-minute drive to Pench National Park’s Turia Gate is very convenient for game drives. The morning safari starts at dawn and lasts for around five hours while the afternoon drive is shorter at around three-and-a-half hours. You can also do a night-time safari in the park’s periphery buffer zone, also known as the ‘wolf safari,’ due to the amount of wolf sightings.

There’s abundant wildlife in Pench National Park. Of course, being a tiger reserve, Bengal tigers are the star attractions, but there are other incredible animals such as leopard, jackal and wild dog. Moving down the food chain there’s chital (spotted deer), sambar and muntjac deer. Gaur is another fascinating creature in the area, the largest species of wild cattle.

Driving through the meadows in an open-top 4x4, the animals you see might be completely different to the ones you encounter when you cross into bamboo terrain. That’s how diverse the landscape is. During the summer you can see a multitude of creatures congregating around the water sources. If you go to the backwaters during this time, you’ll see hundreds of deer at the edges of the riverbanks.