Bandhavgarh national park

In order to explore the wild-life even further, we headed to Bandhavgarh national park. This park is located in Madhya Pradesh.

Travel from Bangalore:

We started off from Bangalore to Delhi in Indigo airlines. From Delhi we took another flight to Khajuraho and then boarded a hired taxi. From Khajuraho it was a good 5 hour journey to Bandhavgarh. We got a good glimpse of rural Madhya Pradesh, which was an interesting experience. The main national highway was well developed, aided us to travel faster. There were loads of Punjabi Dhabas on the roadside. We couldn’t check out any of them as we were bit careful about our food intake. We need to cross the famous Panna national park on the way before reaching Bandhavgarh. As it was not in our original plan, we were not able to cover it completely. However we were able to see spotted deer, peacock, nilgais on the way. Apart from that there were varieties of birds. If you are bird watcher this is something, which you should never miss out.

The highlight was the umpteen numbers of Indian rollers, we watched on the way. It is the state bird of Karnataka, which we could see on each kilometer we traveled. It is really a feast for our eyes.

Accommodation and food

We contacted one of the person named Mr.Mukesh Burman for making all our bookings. He booked our cab, hotel accommodation, Jeep safaris without any problem.

Coming to accommodation, we stayed in Royal Tiger resorts, located Tala village. In fact, the resort is located just outside the national park. The accommodation was pretty good but not that luxurious. It is basically managed by local residents costing 3000 rupees per day for a 14×14 cottage type accommodation. This includes three north Indian meal. Food was just fine but not that tasty. As we were mainly excited to see the national park, we didn’t give much of importance to food and accommodation. If you are very particular about luxury, check out Taj Mahua Kothi.

There is a place called ‘Kadak tiger chai’ near to Tala Zone, where you get awesome gulab jamoons. Don’t forget to check it out.

About the park

Bandhavgarh is spread at vindhya hills in Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh consists of a core area of 105 sq km and a buffer area of approximately 400 sq km. it is primarily famous for Royal Bengal Tigers. The density of the Tiger population at Bandhavgarh is the highest known in India. Bandhavgarh National Park was the former hunting preserve of the Maharaja of Rewa and at present is a famous natural hub for White Tigers. White Tigers, now a major attraction around the world’s zoos, were first discovered in Rewa, not far from here. This forest nestled among the Vindhya hills came into existence in 1968 when the Maharaja of Rewa handed over the area to the government for it’s formation. From then it was developed as a national park.

Inside the national park, there is a fort and multiple sandstone caves. There is no records remain to show when Bandhavgarh Fort was constructed. But it is believed that it is more than 2000 years old.

Tiger safaris and more

Our overall trip was for four days. Even though there are multiple safaris available, we were primarily interested in Tiger safaris.

The park has got two entrances and the main one is called Tala zone. As mentioned above, that’s very near to the resort where we were staying. During summer the tiger safari has two schedules. The first one from 5:30 AM to 9:30 AM and second one is from 4:00 PM to 6:45 PM. Before the safari start, the park employed personal would visit the park in elephants and find the locations where the tigers available. Depending on that, the mode of transport is decided (elephant or jeep). We got opportunity to use both transport and the experience was just awesome. We were able to see ample number of tigers both on both times. Totally we went for 8 safaris in the four days. See the picture below to have a look at one of the sleeping fellows.

During one of our safaris, we found on injured vulture (see picture below). One of our fellow travelers got down from the jeep (which we were not supposed to do) and placed the vulture in one of the rocks. Overall it was a very thrilling, exciting and great experience

 

Bandhavgarh National Park

Visiting Information:

The park can be visited for 4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in afternoon.

The park remains closed in the months of July, August and September.

The nearest railway station is Umaria, which is 32 km from the national park.

Where to Stay ?

You can stay in Hotels near Tala Village, which is near one of the 4 entrances of the park.

1. Tiger Den Resort.

http://www.tigerdenbandhavgarh.com/accommodation.html

2. Royal Tiger Resort

3.  Nature Heritage Resort, http://www.natureheritageresort.com

4.  Jungle Lodge Bandhavgarh, http://www.indiantiger.com/bandhavgarh-jungle-lodge.html

5.  Camp Mewar, http://www.campmewar.com/tariff.htm

A large number of hotels and their phone numbers are also listed at the official website of the state of Madhya Pradesh, http://www.mponline.gov.in/portal/Services/Forest/FinalForest/bandhavgarh.html