Wildlife Photo Journeys
This program has been designed for someone inclined towards wildlife photography. The program creates an opportunity to get the best chance to photograph some iconic wildlife of India such as the Bengal Tiger, Leopard, Gaur, Golden Jackal, Sloth Bear, and the Melanistic Leopard or the Black Panther if you are lucky.
We recommend this program to be explored at two different times of the year to showcase very different perspectives of the jungle. If you as a photographer enjoys lush green background and thick winter coats of wildlife, the rising mist on the river on an early morning drive you should plan your visit in November and/or December. These are months of the year just after the monsoons and the life in the park is thriving. It is also a great time to explore macro photography. Massive wood spiders would have built their webs across trees and the morning dew caught on these strings makes for stunning macro photographs. It is also the time of the year when frogs, dragonflies, spiders, butterflies will be more active. Needless to say, the foliage too will be thicker making is a bit more challenging to seek out the big cats. However, the slanting rays of morning light filtering through the trees will transport you into the scenic jungles that you once imagined in the Jungle Book.
Should you be keener to photograph big cats and larger mammals and get more opportunities to find them the warmer and drier months of February to April will be ideal. The foliage has already dried out and withered away letting you see deeper into the thicket. Mercury by now will be creeping closer to 25-38 degrees and water bodies would be far and few. This is the time when chances of finding animals near waterbodies goes up and they are out in the open, giving us the photographer better opportunities. It is a perfect time to photograph tigers lounging in water bodies.
The parks envisaged for this experience are Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Pench Tiger Reserve, and Kanha Tiger Reserve. Tadoba today gives one the highest probability to see the Bengal Tiger in the wild in India. It is also one of the three parks which have a melanistic leopard giving you the chance of photographing the Black Panther. Pench offers a great opportunity to photograph the Leopard, Golden Jackal, Dhole, and on rare occasions the Indian Grey Wolf. Kanha is probably the largest of the three parks and is the only park home to the Hard ground Barasingha It is also a forest largely dominated by the Sal tree making it greener and cooler than the other two. One has a good chance to find the Sloth Bear along with the Bengal Tiger.
Suggested Sample Itinerary
Day 1
Day 2
Day 7 & 8
Arrive in Delhi. No activities are planned today in case the guests would like to rest after a long flight to India. As an optional we can organize a half day city tour based on the guest interest. Delhi has a lot to offer from birding trails to textile tours, heritage, and architectural walks to culinary experiences there is something for everyone. Alternatively, if guests are interested in birding, we can explore one of the many birding sites around Delhi. Delhi boasts of about 227 species of birds
Overnight will be in Delhi.
Early this morning transfer to the airport to board the flight for Nagpur.
Recommended domestic flight: AI-469 DEL/NAG 0555/0740 Hrs.
On arrival, you will be received by our office representative who shall accompany you to Le Meridien Hotel on the outskirts of the city where you enjoy your breakfast before continuing onwards to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. The journey to Tadoba will take about 2.5hrs by road. Lunch will be at the lodge. You embark on your first safari into Tadoba after lunch.
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Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve came into prominence about a decade ago with exceptionally good sightings of tigers and there was no looking back from that point onwards. We think today it offers a very high probability of sighting tigers. Other key species found in Tadoba are the sloth bear, Indian leopard, jungle cat, and a huge diversity of prey base. In the last few years, Tadoba has also got a black panther – a melanistic who has currently established himself close to the Tadoba Lake.
Overnight will be at Tadoba Andhari.
We have planned two (2) more safaris on each of these days to explore Pench Tiger Reserve.
India is also home to another interesting animal called “Gaur” – often referred to as the Indian Bison. It is the tallest wild cattle species in the world with a height ranging from 4ft 8in to 7ft 3in at the shoulder.
Overnight will be at Pench.
Day 9
This morning we take our last safari into Pench Tiger Reserve.
Note: All parks in the state of Madhya Pradesh remain closed for safari on Wednesday afternoon, so we use this time to transfer to the next park. We need to plan dates for the tour accordingly.
After lunch, we transfer by road to Kanha Tiger Reserve. The journey to Kanha should take about 3.5-4hrs by road.
Kanha Tiger Reserve is the largest tiger reserve in the state of Madhya Pradesh – spread over 1949sq.km of which 940sq.km is the core area, and the remainder is the buffer forest. The park is situated in the Central Indian Highlands, which are part of the extensive tableland that forms India’s main peninsula. The highlands once were continuous forests and accounted for a significant part of the country’s wilderness areas and wildlife habitats. Today, these forests have become fragmented and survive in parks such as Panna, Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Pench, and Sanjay Dubri.
Overnight will be in Kanha.
Day 10, 11 & 12
It is uncertain to bring forward a relevant cause for calling it ‘Kanha’, however, people often associate its origin from the Kanhar River, or the dark black soil found in the area. Before the British took over the land in 1818, it was ruled by the Gond Kings and prior to them by the Rajput dynasties. The land accommodated the nomadic or ‘Baiga’ tribes for several years-while they practiced shifting cultivation (dhya) until the 1868 when the act was prohibited by the Land Settlement Act.
This area came to be known as the reserve forest in the year 1879; it was upgraded as ‘The Banjar Valley Reserve’ in 1933 considering the plight of forest land restoration. The years 1947 to 1951 witnessed a great uproar from the native community and governance as the Raja of Vijayanagaram shot 30 tigers in Kanha. In 1955 ultimately the region was declared as National park. Later the park was fragmented into 2 sanctuaries Banjar and Hallon. In 1973, the park became the first in the league of Tiger reserves in the country. Presently, the reserve encompasses 1949 sq.km. of serene forestland.
You begin your explorations of Kanha this morning. We have planned 2 safaris for you on each of these three (3) days to help you explore the beautiful Sal forests of Kanha.
Overnight will be in Kanha.
Day 3, 4 & 5
These next three days are dedicated to exploring Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.
The Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve is the second-largest park in Maharashtra with a core area of 625 sq. km and a bigger buffer zone of 1102 sq. km. The park derives its name from the legend Taru who was a village chief who was killed in a mythological encounter with a tiger. A shrine dedicated to the God Taru now exists beneath a huge tree, on the banks of the Tadoba Lake. ‘Andhari’ is derived from the name of a river with the same name. The park today is one of the best places to see the Bengal Tiger in its natural habitat.
We have planned two safaris on each of these three (3) days.
All meals are included. Breakfast is usually a picnic breakfast on the morning safari while the other two meals are at the lodge.
Overnight will be at Tadoba Andhari.
Day 6
This morning we enjoy a more leisurely breakfast at the lodge as we do not have a safari planned this morning. After breakfast, we transfer by road to Pench Tiger Reserve – about 4.5hrs away.
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You should arrive in time for lunch and a short time to settle into your room before heading out on your safari in Pench Tiger Reserve.
Pench Tiger Reserve derives its name from the Pench river which is the lifeline of the forest. Unlike Tadoba which was covered in Bamboo, Pench is a more open landscape. The predominant tree here is teak. The teak tree has a very large-sized leaf which helps it absorb a lot of sunlight and generates a lot of food for the tree to grow quickly, however, the same leaf and its large surface area cause a lot of evaporation thus the tree drops its leaf quicker than the other trees. This causes a large part of the forest to lose its cover and the forest dries out quicker than other parks. However, this also means that you have better visibility here than in other jungles.
Pench also boasts of one of the highest numbers of prey base for the predators in any of the central Indian jungles. So, there is always something there to see and the park houses a good number of predators ranging from jackals, wild dogs, wolves to leopards and tigers.
Overnight will be at Pench.
Day 15
Much of this day is spent returning back home. You can choose to wake up early and take in the views of the Himalayas and take a short hike for birding. After breakfast (usually at around 0830) we check out and make our way to Manebhanjan.
Quick tip: Views of the Kanchenjunga from Tonglu village enroute is spectacular and deserves a quick stop to photograph.
Once at Manebhanjan we transfer into Toyota Innova and head to Bagdogra airport to catch our flight back home. It is most likely that today we will need to do a packed picnic style lunch while on the move to Bagdogra, alternately we can grab a bite at the airport. We connect onto our flights.
Recommended flights to Delhi:
Go Air G8157 1620 – 1835 (IXB – DEL)
End Of The Tour.