Tadoba Tiger Reserve is a National park in the state of Maharashtra situated near Moharli village , 25 Km from the city of Chandrapur. Established in the year 1955, the tadoba tiger reserve is home to tigers, leopards and many other wildlife species. The park is sprawled across 625.40 sq km area and is home to variety of jungle cats, indian deer, reptiles and birds.
I had the pleasure of visting the tadoba national park on Wednesday 7 January 2009. The park remains closed every Tuesday and is open for tourists on other days from 6 am-11 am and 3 pm-7 pm. The night safari, which used to be the crowd puller is no longer available. The reserve is at one hour drive from the city of Chandrapur and its best not to take your own vehicle. The road is not bad, but inside the tiger reserve only the likes of tata Sumo, Safari are allowed. Either take a hired vehicle from Chandrapur or you can hire one at the gates of the tadoba national park . We had hired a Tata Sumo in Chandrapur and reached the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation Resort at Moharli on Tuesday evening. The resort is right near the gates of the reserve and is a good place for overnight stay. We got up at 5 am next day, got ready and reached the entry gate at 6. It was still dark; We were assigned a guide and we entered the forest with great hopes.
Over the next five hours in the reserve, we encountered Sambhar, Cheetal, Crocodile, Indian deer, various species of birds, monkeys, peacock, wild boar. But the tiger remained elusive. Spotting a tiger needs patience. You have to wait long nights, and days. To get that one glimpse. When we started out, we didnt think we will spend five hours inside forest. But the guide did his job with great perfection , taking us through all the 'inside' routes and all the water holes where its easy to spot animals. We also spotted the tiger pug marks. Thats as close as we could get. :) April-May is good time to visit the reserve, when they say is the best time to spot a tiger. During summer, the bushes are all dried up and water holes are few which makes it easy to spot tigers. We came out of the reserve at 11 am. Happy but not satisfied.
0 said...:
Post a Comment