Best 5 Tiger Reserves of Central India

Spot the Stripes in Central Indian Forests

Travelling to forests of India to spot the striped big cat - Tiger, in its home - Jungle, is every wildlife lover and travellers dream vacation. Travellers from all over the world visit India to spot these majestic cats in the wild. Spotting Tigers and photographing them in the wild is an unforgettable experience. India boasts of maximum Tigers in the wild and one of the best places in the world to spot them. Today India has many Tiger reserves famous within the tiger lover community and choosing any one or two of them is not easy. 



Munna - The famous tiger of Kanha Tiger Reserve

Central India has the maximum number of Tiger Reserves with the state of Madhya Pradesh alone having 7. Here is a list of 5 best tiger reserves to chose from for your upcoming trip.

Kanha Tiger Reserve -

Spread over 940 Sq Kms, situated in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, Kanha national park is on top of the list. Also known as Kanha Kisli Tiger Reserve, it has one of the best developed tourism infrastructure. It can be easily reached from Jabalpur, Nagpur, Raipur and Gondia. Kanha has more than 100 tigers and is the only wilderness where you can spot Hard ground Swamp deer or Barasingha - the twelve tinned deer. Kanha's Sal and Bamboo forests are one of the best place to rejuvenate your body, mind and soul. Kanha is the best managed national park of India.



Hard Ground Swamp Deer of Kanha

Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve -

Famous for spotting tigers and it's historically important ruins, Bandhavgarh is one tiger reserves you should not miss. With very good infrastructure and easy to reach from Jabalpur and Khajuraho it is always on top of list of wildlife lovers and photographers. It is located in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh forests are also famous for having the highest density of tigers as well as for white tigers. If it is only the tigers on your list Bandhavgarh will certainly be on the top.

Pench Tiger Reserve -

Famous as playground of famous writer Rudyard Kipling, it is said his novel  'Jungle Book' was written with forest of Pench as the set. Pench is dry deciduous forest patch and visibility is very high (especially in dry season) compared to other reserves. It is easily reached from Nagpur and Jabalpur as well as Pachmarhi. Pench forests also have very good bird population and known as bird watchers paradise. You can spot tigers with ease and if lucky leopard, wolf and host of birds as well.

 

Leopard in forests of Central India

 

Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve -

One of the most famous and well known of all tiger reserves, Ranthamhore is situated in Sawai Madhopur District in Rajasthan state. With dry deciduous forest and 3 main ponds (namely Padam Talao, Raj Talao and Malik Talao) spread over the park, spotting a tiger here is relatively easy and ruins of Ranthambhore fort and old princely state make the spotting surreal. Famous for Tiger men of India - Late Shri Fateh Singh ji Rathore and longest living tigress Machli, it has been visited by many from the list of rich and famous. It has very good rail and road connectivity and well developed tourism infrastructure.

Panna Tiger Reserve - 

Khajuraho is famous for its temples and visited by tourists from all over the world. Panna is only 30 Kilometer from Khajuraho but rarely visited although it is one of the best reserves to spot Tigers and Leopards. Panna lost all its tigers to poaching sometime back but with hard work of forest department and support of locals they have come back and regained their kingdom. Panna forests are very good for bird watching and one of the last places in Central India where you can spot 8 species of vultures. Easily reached from Khajuraho and Satna, Panna is one place I will suggest not to miss.    

 

Tiger in forest of India

 

I will suggest to visit minimum 2 tiger reserves, 3 night stay at each and 4 safaris at both destinations. This will increase your chances of spotting tiger and you will be able to enjoy the wilderness to its best.

 

Happy Tiger Trailing .........



Spotting a tiger in wild is an unforgettable experience.

 

  
 

Kanha and my experiences

Mr. Sanjeev Kulhalli has spent more than 20 years at Kanha starting as Manager of one the resorts. We had been asking him to write down his experiences of Kanha National Park which we always hear, stories which make us jealous at times on his good luck to have spent a major part of his life at a place he loves so much. Finally here is something for all - one of his anecdote which I am sure all will cherish.

After spending close to two decades in Kanha I am frequently asked about exciting encounters or experiences with tigers or other wild animals, there have been so many that it would be impossible to pen down even a fraction of the entire collection in a single sitting. It was late in the morning after breaking our fast at Kanha museum we were on Schaller’s hide road when suddenly chital's alarm calls erupted from all over and from the circular road grasslands emerged a pack of 14 wild dogs who successfully brought down an adult chital hind, while all this was going on I was frantically trying to draw the attention of my clients who were near the barasingha enclosure in a another jeep, By the time they covered the intervening 800 meters there was nothing left of the deer ! gory! may be, brutal may be !BUT VERY REAL!!! Unfortunately that is how the wild dogs hunt.

Wild Animals at Kanha National Park. (Here we see Wild Dog, Peacock and Tiger, Photographs by Navneet Maheshwari.)

It was Christmas eve on 24th Dec. in the mid 1990'sand I was on link 7 road trying to escape the crowd as there was no restriction on the number of vehicles then, As I reached a cluster of the Indian Ghost tree ( sterculia urens) I stopped to explain the trees to my clients, When we restarted we had to cross a patch of van rahar ( a wild shrub ) and bamboo for a few hundred meters, as we turned a bend, I thought I glimpsed something streaking past at a distance I wasn’t sure what It was, the very alert guide Vinay kumar and my Jeep driver Ganesh not having reacted at all gave me the impression that perhaps I had imagined it, Never the less, I stopped the vehicle and after waiting and looking around for 2-3 minutes, I asked Ganesh to go another 20-30 metres and stop, All of us i.e. 4 clients, guide, driver and myself were trying to look beyond the bushes when with a fearful whisper Ganesh pointed from beside my right side and he was looking down and left and lo behold this tigress with a snarl on her face, her udder engorged with her belly facing us let out a thunderous roar and sprang about 3 meters vertically in the air when she landed back on the shrubs and leaves disappearing magically moaning loudly about the invasion on her privacy, We did feel guilty about disturbing her albeit unintentionally, the entire experience was exhilarating and unforgettable.

It has been a privilege working in one of the Best Tiger reserves in the country, may Kanha continue to excel in management, commitment, discipline and its glorious sightings of Fauna & flora. May it continue to lead the way in conservation.


Sanjeev Kulhalli


Mr. Sanjeev Kulhalli is presently stationed as Resident Director of Kanha Village Eco Resort at Kanha National Park.

India should create wildlife cadre to protect tigers: Valmik Thapar

BANGKOK: India should step up efforts to revamp its forest service and create a separate wildlife cadre for tigers which can work in partnership with other agencies to protect the animal, a top conservationist has said.
Valmik Thapar, an Indian conservationist, is of the view that when the British left India they also left behind the Indian Forest Service, whose primary duty was cutting of forests and use of forests.
"That scenario has changed now, it is not only about protecting the forest but also protecting its wildlife," he said adding that wildlife protection was a very tiny part of the service and not sufficient and called for a wildlife cadre.
"If India wants more landscape for tigers, a separate cadre has to be carved," he said on the sidelines of a Tiger protection conference here. "The time has come for change, new partnerships without that tigers won't be alive," he told PTI.
The Tiger conference organised by the UN office of Drugs and Crime saw police and customs heads and Tiger conservationists from 13 Asian countries agreeing to tighten controls and improve cross border cooperation to curb the illegal smuggling of tigers and other critically endangered species.
"We must take immediate and urgent action to save these magnificent animals from extinction," Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General of the World Customs Organisation said.
Thapar said poaching was linked to a government. "Poaching accelerate, when there is a bad and weak government as poachers exploit these gaps," he said, adding that bad governance and bad political leadership also led to the endangerment of animal species.
He felt that India's forest department did not like change. "We need to rethink otherwise we have no hope," he lamented. Meanwhile, the Global Tiger Initiative of the World Bank said India faced major challenges in sustaining the integrity and inviolability of core tiger habitats and corridors (mounting pressures from roads, mining and extraction industries).
It said that one billion US dollars were needed to relocate villages out of the core areas. Another challenge was in maintaining tiger occupancy in habitats outside tiger reserves and noted there was a 20 per cent in tiger occupancy observed habitats outside designated tiger reserves. A third challenge according to the Tiger Initiative was managing human-wildlife relationships noting there had been increased tiger-human conflict in some landscapes.

However the Global Initiative also noted that India had made some major achievements. These included addition of 2,500 km2 of new tiger habitat by establishing two new Tiger Reserves bringing a total of 54,656 Km2 under 41 Tiger reserves. This represented a five per cent increase in tiger habitat under protection, it said adding that five more tiger reserves were under establishment and another six were proposed.

It said across the country, tiger and prey estimations had recorded a modest increase in tiger numbers and that wildlife corridors connecting critical tiger breeding areas had been identified and published.
"If we lose an emblematic species like the Tiger, mankind will be acknowledging that it is prepared to lose any animal on the planet. This must not be allowed to happen," Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the UNODC told the conference adding that "by our actions we must show that we have the capacity, the ability and the commitment to protect other species living on this planet."
 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/India-should-create-wildlife-cadre-to-protect-tigers-Valmik-Thapar/articleshow/11947860.cms 

Wild Dogs of Kanha - The whistling predator



Dhole - Wild Dogs

Wild Dogs or Dholes are known as The whistling hunters as they do not bark but communicate between each other by whistling. They live in packs of 3 to 25 and packs of 6 to 14 are common. 

Wild dogs are perfect predators and seeing them making a kill is an experience in its own. Once I saw a pack making a kill and they did not even wait for the poor spotted deer to die but started eating its intestines.

We saw this pack of 7 wild dogs at Kanha national park. It was early morning when we were looking for Tiger since we had heard chittals i.e. spotted deer calling. We saw some movement around 40 feet from us where it was very dense foliage. And it was here that we saw this pack coming out. They sat near our Gypsy and were playing together. This went on for almost 40 minutes and than they left inside again.

To see wild dogs and other wild animals like Tiger, Gaur, Spotted Deer, Sambhar, etc., you can visit national parks in India like Kanha National Park, Bandhavgarh National Park, Bandipur national park, Nagerhole National Park and like.
Navneet Maheshwari
http://www.kanha.in/

Tiger at Kanha National Park

Tiger Yawning, taken at Kanha National Park

King of forest taking rest under a tree. It is always a pleasure to visit Kanha Tiger Reserve and having an audience with the king is certainly an unforgettable experience.