Tiger Safari in India

 

(Translation mostly by Google)

I had signed up for the Indian tiger safari for the first time already in 2020 as part of my then-planned round-the-world trip. Now, four years later, the trip was on the calendar again. The travel program had changed somewhat from before. For example, the program did not include a visit to the Taj Mahal, as before - the cultural part of the trip seemed quite light anyway, and it was. The cost level of the trip, on the other hand, had risen by about 30% from four years ago. The national parks on the program were the same: Kaziranga, Panna, Bandhavgarh and Kanha.

The Indian Rhinoceros - pride of Kaziranga

We started the trip in northeastern Assam, Kaziranga National Park, where the main stars of the park are the Indian rhinos, which can be seen for sure only here. There is also a large population of tigers in the park, but it is difficult to see them here because of the long, abundant grass. During four drives, we had one tiger sighting when we saw a male crossing the road about 100m away.

First Tiger sighting in Kaziranga

From Kaziranga, we traveled south to the state of Madhya Pradesh and Khajuraho, where we celebrated Holi for a day and got to know the local temples, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site with their rich carvings. Unfortunately, both the temple visit and the Holi celebration fell short of expectations and had little to offer in terms of photography. The visit to the temples was too much dominated by the expert guide who tied up too much of our short visit with long historical stories about the temple carvings. I would say that even a significantly lighter version would have been enough for our group. It's also worth taking a long objective with you, because the best shooting situations are in relation to the temple's local visitors, birds and squirrels. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this myself. Regarding Holi, the village of Khajuraho is too small for any big Holi fuss, so in that sense, the occasion did not materialize at all as I had imagined in my mind. The only possibility in terms of photography was practically to sneak photos of local children having their own party. I don't really like such situations for ethical reasons.

Khajuraho Western Group of Temples

After the holiday, we headed to the first real tiger safari in Panna National Park, where we ran into a big male tiger almost right at the beginning of the first drive. The tiger could be photographed for a few minutes before it returned to the thicket, where it come from. Panna National Park is hot, dry and dusty. We didn't get to photograph other tigers here, but we did get some birds and multiple deer species.

Panna also has possibility to photograph many Vultures

We continued our journey south to Bandhavgarh National Park, which enjoys the reputation of being perhaps the best tiger park in India. Over the course of four days, we made dozens of tiger sightings - in particular, six situations were good for photography and two of them were excellent. However, photographing tigers is not a sure thing even here in Bandhavgarh. In addition, a lot of birds and deer animals were recorded on the memory cards. For me, the situation was weakened by the virus that struck me in Khajuraho, which raised the fever high, and it was not a winning combination with the heat that was in the corresponding readings. So, I had to lighten the safari program by completely skipping a few scorching afternoon safaris. Mornings were almost always better than afternoons, so that's why I chose this way.

Bandhavgarh has the reputation of being the best Tiger Park in India

From Bandhavgarh we continued south to Kanha, where the scenery was the best of the trip. I would say that Kanha is the most 'real safari atmosphere' here in India. There were some tiger sightings, but really only one situation had photographic potential and even that was totally misread by our guide. We also saw a sloth bear here, but otherwise the photo capture was quite modest.

Kanha had the best scenery of the trip

An Indian tiger safari is a significantly more demanding trip than an African safari. There will be significantly more traveling in India and the temperature and dust are sometimes at their maximum readings. Shooting situations are also often more demanding than, for example, in East Africa, because the places favored by tigers have not been cleaned/cleared in any way, so there are a lot of branches and leaves that hinder the line of sight. In addition, the locations are often real dead ends, where it is sometimes difficult to find good shooting lines behind other photographers. Seeing a tiger on such a two-week trip is almost guaranteed, but the quality of the shooting situations is not, so in principle it is possible to return home without quality cat photos. In India, safaris are driven in open-top jeeps that are smaller than in Africa, so the exposure to the sun is high - there is much less space anyway. The Indian safari is therefore a very different type of entity compared to its African cousin, and you should keep that in mind when preparing yourself. Naturally, however, India is the only possible place where it is possible to photograph the Indian rhinoceros and the Bengal tiger in their natural environment with a reasonable probability.

Indian Gypsy-jeeps are much smaller than African Landrovers

The protection of tigers and nature in India has received a positive boost from nature tourism, and although nature values ​​are not naturally very high among the locals, the financial contribution brought by tourism is absolutely important in terms of the continuity of conservation work.

As in Africa, massive population pressures and widespread socio-economic problems are now and will continue to put pressure on national parks and natural habitats, and it would be a lie to say that the future looks good.

Unfortunately, at the global level, policy makers have failed to bring about any decisions that would have an impact on the massive loss of nature we are witnessing and the ongoing wave of extinctions that is shaking ecosystems around the world. My recommendation remains the same: it's worth going to see for yourself while it's still possible.