Call of the Wild- Bandhavgarh National Park

Bandhavgarh National Park, popular for the tiger tourism in India, was a must see for me even after I had visited Kanha and Pench in the same month. Reaching the place using public transport took little too long. From Jabalpur I took a bus to Katni, then to Umaria and then to Tala. It was too very hectic in the old noisy buses which were filled with humans. Believe me there wasn't even an inch of free space. I felt world is so big when I disembarked at Tala gate :) Took a room for two nights in forest rest-house paying Rs. 3000 and extra for food. My plan was to go for safari and next day to the fort. It is a clean accommodation with no TV right at the national park gate at Tala.

The food was okay in the rest house. I spent the night thinking about next morning's jungle safari. I had to look for a shared ride quickly. And I got it! With an Australian couple just for Rs. 1000. Like other national parks Bandhavgarh is bustling with wildlife. Antelopes and other herbivores are in abundance. Birds too are all around. But, the vehicles move around so very fast that you won't be able to see these little creatures which was little disappointing.

We first saw pugmarks, and then all the gypsies (Indian made 4X4 open vehicles) followed the marks until they vanished into the forest. Then some fast driving around and waiting here and there where other gypsies were waiting. At last ... in one place ... under thick foliage ... this mother tigress (first picture) was playing with its grown-up boy-cub. The moment we reached the kid moved away leaving the super-alert Mommy behind. 

In my personal opinion, elephant rides are the best. Eco-friendly and provides much more wilderness experience. I have mentioned this in earlier posts, next time when I visit any national park I will go for an elephant ride. But, then domesticating an elephant also makes me sad. Every creature on this Earth should be free and happy. 

Below is the scene ... gypsies lined up for morning jungle safari. There were few more behind mine. All these vehicles were running around to show tiger to the tourists. Recently, tiger tourism was banned in India which was then lifted favoring tourists. When I asked my driver to drive a bit slow he asked me an obvious question ... Madam, aapko sher dekhna hai ya nanhin? (Do you want to see a tiger or not?) ... 

In my opinion, Bandhavgarh is too very commercialized. Everybody, including me, will see a tiger but, I was unhappy to see too many gypsies moving around noisily with more than tolerable speed- in my opinion. There is another option for more wilderness experience. To see the fort and temples inside the park. Though I tried very hard to convince domestic as well as international tourists- I could not get any shared rides. I skipped it for the next visit.

I had long way ahead ... Tala to Umaria by bus ... Umaria to Katni by train ... then another train to Maihar, my next next destination, a shaktipeetha. 

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Click HERE to read more articles about National Parks of India. Click HERE to read complete Backpacking India series.

This post is linked to Our World Tuesday and Nature Notes.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.