Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, around 100 miles (150km) south of Nagpur is the least visited of the national parks in Maharashtra, partly due to difficult access and partly due to limited accommodation. It’s home to some 90 tigers as well as much other Indian wildlife. The park gates are only open from 6:30-10:30 am and 2:00-6:00 pm with just a limited number of safari vehicles admitted each day. The park is divided into a more open core zone and two buffer zones which are more heavily forested (and have rougher tracks). On different days in the week, the different zones are closed off. During our visits to the park, we see only Indian tourists and no other Europeans!
Day 1
Our first afternoon is in the core zone and we start to realize just how elusive tigers are and how lucky we’ll be to spot any. But lucky we are! I’m told we spotted three in close proximity to one another, although I only got clear sight on one! It is a very hot afternoon and we had to leave the park before the gates closed. The tigers, obviously deciding it was too hot to venture to a nearby water hole, stayed in the shade.
Day 2
Soon after 6:00 am we’re in an open jeep waiting for the gate to open into a heavily forested buffer zone. Our driver and guide are keen to be first in as the rough, narrow, winding tracks are VERY dusty so it’s better not to have another vehicle in front of you. There’s no speed limit on these tracks and our driver takes full advantage! It’s soon after dawn and very cool, so there’s a lot of activity. We’re on the lookout for the local “big five” - tiger, leopard, gaur (Indian bison), sloth bear and Indian wild dog. We see many frolicking langur monkeys with their crazy long tails, a pair of gaur clearly getting all set to mate, deer of one sort or another, the odd wild boar and many different types of colourful birds.
But of course what we are really looking for are tigers. And once again, we’re not disappointed!
But a good guide, keen eyesight and a really good camera are essential. Tigers merge into the undergrowth and can be very difficult to spot!
That afternoon in a different buffer zone, we really strike it lucky! The jeep driver and our accompanying park guide are not allowed to use cell phones in the core area but can in the buffer zones. Word spreads quickly of a tiger sighting. And we take off like the proverbial “bat out of hell” (or as Sandra said “as if the pub’s about to close”!) and were treated to an amazing sight…..
But that’s not the end of it. We’re getting nearer to closing time and another call comes in. Once again we tear through the forest tracks at breakneck speed in time to see a male tiger out for a stroll
That’s three sightings in one day….
Day 3
We’re back into the core zone at dawn. We soon catch a glimpse of two tigers in the undergrowth on the far side of a water hole (so that makes eight in total during our short stay in Tadoba). Too camouflaged this time to photograph. But we do see the third of the “big five” - a sloth bear having his breakfast
