How to maximize chances of Tiger Sighting!!

We went for Jungle Safaris in the Madhya Pradesh Forests between 20^th to 25^th of May 2014. We just planned one safari in each of the popular zones so as to cover most of the forest. Had no big expectations so no plans to repeat safaris in same zone. We weren’t like “Won’t give-up till we see” but rather “Let’s check as much as we can and try our luck”. And fortunately out of our six safaris we saw tigers in three of them. In Kisli zone we had a double sighting. One in the beginning of the Safari and one towards the end.

Our planning and trial & errors clicked and we returned home happily.    

Indeed it is true; Jungle is much more than Tiger Sighting because besides that too, there is a lot more to see. Mother Nature’s creativity is apparent in almost every animal from beautiful dancing peacocks to even the ugly vulture which you would love to watch. But all said and done Tourists mostly want to see Tiger(s) and it becomes so that the success of whole safari solely depends on Tiger sighting. Although anybody will agree such single minded objective could be very disappointing but still I will try to discuss here how to maximize the chances of Tiger sighting, since that’s what most of us want!!

On the basis of what I have been hearing and reading (including Travellers reviews everywhere) and my own experience, chatting with the guides and other tourists, here are some tips that might prove useful to you to get the best.

1) THE BEST SEASON – Summer is the best season. Intense heat forces the animals to walk upto the nearest waterbody to quench their thirst despite the human crowd waiting. Being around a water body (also called water-hole) exactly around sunset is the best you can do to watch a Tiger. You may check our photographs – two out of our four sightings were Tigers sitting in ponds/drinking water. But there are two problems with this. Admin rules do not allow one group to remain stationery at one point for long. Rules says “Keep moving and watch whatever comes along” – but here we have to be little shameless and use our best persuasion skills with the guide. Usually a good guide will try his best to get at least one sighting for you. Gentleman’s way under this situation will be to watch for a while click pictures and then move on leaving the Tiger for others to see. Hanging on will send the Tiger away, disappointing fellow tourists.
The second issue is again – there are quite a few water bodies and it then becomes matter of chance if the Tiger comes to the one where you are waiting!!

2) THE BEST TIME - As I said above it is the Sunset but unfortunately most of the zones’ admin rules want you back at the exit gate immediately after Sunset. And max permissible speed limit is 20km ph. This makes it very tricky. Animals don’t usually come out when Sun is hot and by the time Sun softens (sets), we have to leave. So just around that time one has to try and honestly even a 10 min window should get you a sighting. Second best time is Sunrise. Your guide knows around which area tiger was sighted last evening and even you can talk to people a night before to find that out. So idea is to enter inside as early as possible and rush to that spot before the Tiger moves inside the wilderness as the sun becomes hotter. Don’t wait to watch birds, or deer etc. on the way, you can see them later. Have a single point agenda – like bulls eye and go for it. Normally Tiger movement seen on previous night in a given area does not change much next morning, so this gives you an excellent chance. It worked for us. I did the homework previous night and got the idea of the route where Kanha’s most famous (Superstar) Tiger Munna was sighted that evening (Dighdola). We followed that route and we were second to reach the spot – Munna was sitting right on the road in front of us!! See the picture.

As mentioned above normally after 8 am (& before 5 pm) when the Sun is hot animal sightings are rare and few people even return to their hotels if they have had a sighting already rather than roaming in hot sun.

 

3) THE BEST REGIONS - Normally Tiger sighting is all matter of chance. Chances are not better in premium zone. We did not see any Tiger in Premium zones but had a double sighting in Kisli which is not so popular. In fact Sirhi zone which is least popular (last choice of tourists) had the highest chance that day – unfortunately there was just one vehicle in that zone!!
Tala Zone in Bandhavgarh is supposed to be sure shot place – The Best in India! And I had cancelled my whole tour in 2012 when I could not get ticket to Tala. But while we did two Safaris in this so called Most Premium Zone we didn’t see any Tiger while a Tigress was sighted in the adjacent non-premium Maghadhi zone on both occasions, with her young ones!! 

4) THE BEST STRATEGY - Actually from tourists point of view the Ideal method would be to go and wait in the given town/village and keep checking in which zone sightings are happening and then accordingly go for Safari in that particular zone. But unfortunately in our country there is so much crowd that finding entry ticket at 11^th hour is near to impossible for normal people. So I suggest to book one slot in advance and keep the other slot free. In case sighting is happening in the zone you have not booked for you can try for ticket at the counter during you empty slot.

5) ACCOMODATION – Please don’t worry for booking accommodation. The plethora of travel website and their competition makes us apprehensive and we tend to book our hotel to avoid inconvenience. But what we saw is that similar hotels are available cheaper on the spot, due to absence of any agency in between. With recent Supreme Court rules safaris have been reduced to 20% so there is an overkill of hotels and safari vehicles – 80% of capacity is redundant. So if you are looking for budget hotels or even 2-3 star hotels chances are you will find them easily even post landing. Most important is to book your safari ticket well in advance rest all will fall in place, eventually.

6) JOURNEY – Depending upon your starting point you can plan either way PENCH – KANHA (KISLI, MUKKI) – BANDHAVGARH or the reverse. Road from Pench to Kanha is average-good but from Kanha to Bandhavgarh is very bad as renovation work is under progress, at lot of places road is dug up. You need to go via Mandla, and road between Mandla and Badhavgarh is bad. You can take a detour via Jabalpur but there also around 70 km road is bad. With an SUV you can assume an average speed of 50 KM per hour and do you calculations. However between Mandla and Bandhavgarh, it could even be maximum 30km ph.  

 

BRIEF INFO ON VARIOUS ZONES

BANDHAVGARH TALA – Most Popular. Tickets are not easily available. One needs to book months in advance. We booked two safaris here and did not have any Tiger sighting. So don’t worry even if you don’t get tickets to this zone. You can either book Maghadhi zone or skip Bandhavgarh altogether. While we were checking out in Tala zone, Tigress was sighted with her cubs in Magadhi zone on both the occasions. In Tala Zone they have two routes, A to C (& reverse) and B to D (or reverse). Means if you enter from A you return from C and vice-versa. Ditto with B & D. So even if a Tiger is sighted in any say B-D route, vehicles on A-C can’t trespass into B-D route. Rules are not so strict in Maghadhi though, since the zone is small. If tiger is sighted anywhere other vehicles can rush to that spot. The Third zone Khatuali here is neither popular nor did we hear of any sighting there.
One big advantage of Bandhavgarh is that we can wait just near water bodies and check out wild life. It is highly entertaining to see rare birds and animals there. Such is not the case at other places.. at least not beside large water bodies.

PENCH – There is only Gate here from MP side i.e. Touria. Pench has a lot of hilly terrain and that makes the safari more adventurous. This place is better for Leopard sighting because they are usually seen on hills or trees, but sighting Leopard is rarer than even Tiger and we were not that fortunate. But we saw plenty of dancing peacocks and many other animals in Pench.

We missed the Tiger by 5 min. Another group from our hotel who was behind us got to see the Tiger coming from the woods and going to the lake to drink water!! So it’s just our bad luck.

Pench also has entry from Maharashtra side, from Karmajhiri Gate but we did not do that safari this time.

KANHA – This has been the most fruitful zone for us. We did one Safari each in Mukki, Kanha & Kisli and got to see tigers in all three safaris. During Kisli we in fact had a double sighting.

The main entry Gate to Kanha is called Khatia. You enter from Khatia for Kanha & Kisli zones. We can also enter the Mukki zone through this Gate, but frankly this was kind of misinformation given to us by our Hotel for their vested interest. Entering from Khatia for Mukki makes you travel inside the forest for a long time till you reach the zone and the spot Baba Thenga Talab. So we got less time to spend at the Talab compared to those who entered from Mukki Gate. Since we had to return to our Gate around Sunset, we had to rush back while others stayed back. You must return to the same Gate through which you entered. But this came as a blessing in disguise to us when while on return we witnessed a Tigress coming from the thicket and walking upto a water hole (Dhvaja Jhandi Kund aka Handpump). This was our best sighting as there were only 3 vehicles and we were closest barely 20 ft from the pond!! See the picture above (Tiger drinking Water).

Kanha zone is the largest zone among all and it takes pretty long to comb this region for Tiger. So it is advisable to opt for morning safari here as that gives you longer time compared to evening. We had one distant Tiger sighting here. But besides Tiger we saw lot of other animals especially Bison, Sāmbhar, Jackal etc.

Kisli zone proved the best for us. We had morning Safari and we entered 5^th in the forest and were just second in our zone Kisli. From the information I had gathered previous night and with the help of our guide Sukman Dhurvey we zeroed in on Dighdola near Silihari Talab where Munna, Kanha’s famous Tiger was seen last evening. We headed straight there without stopping in between checking pug marks. And got to see Munna from close range. He was sitting for long and then got up and limped towards Sirhi zone. While returning too, we saw another Tiger sitting in a water hole. it came out from the jungle and gracefully walked upto the water body and took a dip. He was Bheema the next King in the making probably..

During Kisli Safari we got to see Barahsingha too, a breed of deer which is only found in Kanha in the entire world. Very beautiful, see the pictures.          

    

One Special Note (Very Important) - We had booked safaris on some other dates but due to change in Program we cancelled those tickets and booked fresh ones. As per their conditions we should have got the due refund within 7 days but it is still more than 40 days we are waiting for the refund and they don't reply to your emails. So keep this in mind when you book.