India Trip Report - 3

Landing in Jabalpur we were greeted by a very courteous group of Kingfisher staff and were soon on our way driving to Bandhavgarh.  We checked in at the Nature Heritage Lodge, a quick lunch an off to our first safari. Bandhavgarh is divided into three zones with only two being active.  The zone closest to the resort is TALA and the one farthest is MAGDI.  Our first safari was in Magdi the second zone.

Our first creature was a wild boar, actually a whole family of about 8 boars.  A number of Hanuman Langurs, Chital (Spotted deer), peacocks and peahens were in abundance as were owls, raptors and a numerous species of awesome birds.  The next three days were spent in the TALA zone – each day presented us with a variety of wildlife but unfortunately no tigers.  One had been located by an elephant scouting team and accessible only by traveling on elephant back.  We decided not to do the viewing and hope for better luck by jeep.The fourth day’s AM safari was in the Magdi zone and did not yield any tigers but a potential as one of the jeeps had heard two tigers growling and crunching on a kill.  The next safari yielded an extended viewing of one of the two tigers.  The following day the safari was even better when each one did a 40 to 45 minute show.  With the success of viewing tigers we decided to extend another day in Bandhavgarh and reduce the Kanha excursion by a day.Rather than showing individual images here is a slide show gallery representing the two zones in Bandhavgarh, scenes from the safari, a village in the area and its people: