"
The Indian Tiger is indeed the jewel in the crown of the rich Indian Legacy".
Every traveler who visits India dreams to catch a glimpse of the Indian
Tiger. Not many tigers are left in India, perhaps 4,000, although many
conservationists say that their numbers may be less than 3,000, due to
recently increased poaching. This is still an increase over the situation in
1973, when Project Tiger was started. At the time, the population was down
to 1,800 animals.
Discover the Wild Inhabitants
India's tigers are scattered across the country, and though some national
parks have plenty of tigers (the Sunderbans has an estimated population of
270, and Kanha has 102), it's extremely difficult to catch a glimpse of
these solitary, nocturnal animals. Only a few parks offer a realistic chance
of seeing tigers, either because park officials track the tigers daily, or
because some tigers have become habituated to tourists in 4-wheel drives.
Accepted wisdom seems to be that three parks provide the best chance of
seeing tigers: Corbett (in the Himalayan foothills of northern Uttar
Pradesh), Kanha (in Madhya Pradesh state) and Ranthambhore (in Rajasthan).
In the Wild Arena.
The wild Indian landscape is varied: dense hardwood sal forest, patches of
bamboo forest higher up on the hillsides, and large tracts of open grassland
that make wildlife viewing here so pleasurable, as the wide-open spaces make
it easy to spot lots of animals.
The
grasslands, however, are not natural occurrences: they mark the former sites
of villages that were moved out of the park some 20 years ago. Because of
its elevation, between 450 and 900 metres above sea level, it can get quite
chilly at night in the winter months, and every morning that I was there, in
early February, there were patches of frost on the ground.
Can find Tiger Safari.
» Gir
National Park
»
Bandhavgarh
National Park
» Corbett
National Park
»
Ranthambore
Wildlife Sanctuary
»
Sunderbans
