A safari adventure in India to search for the sublime, majestic Bengal tigers, and other beautiful creatures of the Indian forest reserves, is a safari unlike classic African safaris, and certainly is an adventure of its own kind. While the basic structure of your safari day in a tiger reserve is similar in outline (2 daily drives into the forest, with a midday rest break), from there the Indian experience diverges completely from most classic African safaris. India is a fascinating and friendly, colorful and chaotic, magical and mysterious, overwhelming and invigorating, complicated and crazy (at times) travel destination that leaves you with a yearning to return again and again, but also in need of a good long nap when you return home at the end of your trip!
Recently, I traveled with fellow guests and Wandering Thru to India, with private guide Tristan Dicks, to search for snow leopards in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas (see the Ghost of the Mountains blog post), Indian leopards in Jawai (Rajasthan), and finally to the mystical forest reserve of Ranthambore in northern India, to seek tigers in one of the most iconic beautiful old jungle settings ever to be home to India’s treasured national animal: the Bengal tiger.
Ranthambore National Park is one of the biggest and most famous parks in India, and was a former private hunting ground of the Maharajas of Jaipur. The huge, historical and imposing Ranthambore fort stands shining high on the cliffs above the forest, and there are many ruins and architectural remnants dotted all over the forest landscape, which create gorgeous vistas for viewing the wildlife, and especially the regal tigers, who occasionally drape themselves in old archways, or along ancient walls, making for the most incredible photographic moments for the lucky guests that happen to be in the right place at the right time. The light and scenery and landscapes of Ranthambore are a photographer’s dream!
Our lodging while at Ranthambore was at SUJAN’s Sher Bagh, a beautiful and classic safari camp, with comfortable, luxurious tents and spaces, delicious food, superb guides, and warm and friendly staff, who go out of their way to create a perfect guest experience for a tiger safari. The camp is a ten minute drive to the main gate of Ranthambore, so the daily commute into the park for safari drives is minimal, which is definitely a plus for a visit to a tiger reserve! You could not ask for a better camp location and stay while visiting Ranthambore.
Ranthambore is divided into ten different tourist zones, each having its own personality and unique landscapes within the dry, deciduous northern forest of India, and each containing its own resident territorial tigers (of course, the tigers can move as they wish within the forest landscape, so their territories can easily straddle a couple of different zones). Safari guests, through their local lodging and park guides, and their forest permits requested, will be assigned different zones to enter and explore daily, both for morning and afternoon drives. Safari vehicles and their guests are only allowed to explore their assigned zones, with strict gate entry and exit times, in order to deliberately spread out the tourist usage of the park, and therefore the overall tourism pressure on the landscape and its glorious wildlife inhabitants.
Because the gate entry times are quite exacting, along with a very regimented zone permit system for vehicles and guests, the twice-daily arrival at zone gates is quite an experience for safari guests unused to the Indian system of managing the forest reserves! It can be chaotic and frenzied outside the gates while waiting for the opening time, with experienced guides and excited guests on the vehicles, lots of chattering voices, and the usual stray dogs (outside the main gate in the local village itself) and people milling around, and sometimes even a tiger that happens to choose that particular moment to stroll confidently through her territorial space that overlaps the gate area!! The start of a forest safari drive is not a serene calm start to your day, as in most areas of more remote African wildlife reserves, so guests should be a bit prepared to witness a very different scene, and to just sit back and enjoy the unique experience!
Once inside your tourism zone for the morning or afternoon, the landscapes unfold their misty beauty and allure, and it becomes all about driving and listening for alarm calls, looking for glimpses of camouflaged striped coats of fur or a twitchy tail flick or black and white ear movements, or even the slinking movements of a cat in the grasses, and then hoping for brief or even lengthy sightings of the biggest cats on Earth (although the rare endangered Siberian/Amur tiger in Russia and China is the absolute biggest tiger) in all of their magnificent glory! All of your senses must be tuned in, because the cats can be anywhere, and if you are lucky enough to find one standing in the early dawn light in the middle of a quiet road, and before any other jeep (Gypsy) has arrived on the scene, you might have a few minutes of complete peace and awe witnessing the incredible beauty of a huge cat that almost seems mythical in its presence.
We grow up seeing photos of tigers in books, and maybe taking a trip to a good accredited zoo or sanctuary to see one in person, but to see a WILD tiger in its own landscape, and doing its own wild-tiger-daily-things is just a surreal, breathtaking, pinch-me vision and moment! And while the long-time conservation efforts in India are producing encouraging results in slowly increasing tiger populations within the national parks and reserves, the increasing human pressure around the reserves and all over the world, in general, is causing our Earth to lose its wildlife and wild places at an alarming rate. So, it is always wonderful to be able to see the wild cats and animals of the world in their natural habitats, especially.
The forests of India, and Ranthambore too, will divulge their beauty and their iconic big orange striped cats, in their own way and in their own time, so Luck has a major role in actually finding and seeing tigers, but then again, patience and hard work tracking and listening for calls, and pondering a cat’s movements and daily activities, and basic biological instincts and drives, also becomes a major factor in your success on a tiger safari. Putting in the hard work and time can bring about some incredible moments though, and ultimately you will hopefully have beautiful photos and memories of Bengal tigers to enjoy and come home with after your successful trip.
Our safari in March of 2024 was a spectacular time in Ranthambore, in the late winter landscape, resulting in us being able to find and see 10 different tigers in multiple sightings, and one gorgeous young female Indian leopard too! Riddhi and her 3 cubs, Arrowhead and her 3 cubs, elegant Noori, and the fabulous young independent son of Noori all allowed themselves to be seen and enjoyed during our 6 days and nights in Ranthambore, with the 3 tigresses being some of the hallowed royalty of the forest there.
What amazing success and photographic moments that we enjoyed during our safari and stay! We heard the famous cats’ stories and learned about their lineages, and witnessed wonderful mother and cub interactions between Arrowhead and her cubbies, and sat with sleeping cats, and watched Riddhi skulking around in the grasses by the big lake and plucking a chital deer carcass out of the grass right in front of our jeep (for some beautiful face-on photographic shots), and simply soaked in the beauty and splendor of Ranthambore in quiet moments and at our coffee or popcorn/snack stops too.
There were conversations about tiger conservation and protection, time spent in photographic mentoring and teaching, funny moments with birds that did not have good toilet manners, and discussions about what made the best kind of Good Luck snacks to bring on drive, as well! All in all, a perfect, well-rounded safari adventure!
And we had a bonus early morning sighting of an elegant, sleek, spotty cat crossing the road furtively in front of us, but then perching on the hill next to our vehicle for a short while, allowing us some beautiful close up photos and views of her!
It was a supremely successful tiger safari experience in every way, and professionally created and perfectly executed by WanderingThru and Tristan Dicks, whom are my favorite Go-To safari tour operators now in both Africa and in India! Please consider contacting them yourself to create your preferred future safari adventure. You will not be disappointed!
