Bandhavgarh - A revisit

Wild Life trips

Male Cub of Dotty

Having been to Bandhavgarh in November last and come away with facinating memories, as a family we were eager to be back at the first opportunity. My daughter having graduated from high school was busy preparing for her College admissions. Being in regular touch with Kesava Murthy helps get a heads up on trip (I'd like to think....earlier than others... ;) helped make the plan much earlier despite the uncertainities around the College counselling dates. Like they say all is well that ends well and the admission process was completed exactly on the day that we were to travel.

Once the admission at one of the leading colleges in Bangalore was done, it was time to let our hair down. Since the trip plan included my parents, we decided to travel by train, which would give us some quality time with each other. There being a direct train to Jabalpur from Chennai, we took the overnight train to Chennai and met up with the parents. We all boarded the weekly train from Chennai Egmore to Gaya and settled in for a 27 hour journey to Jabalpur, where we were picked up by cab to Tala and our home for the next 4 days - Tiger Trails Resort.

Blue Bearded Bee Eater

Having reached the resort fairly early in the day, we found the place to quiet, since folks on safari rides were yet to return while the ones leaving had already checked out. Quiet of the place meant that quite a few birds were out. Check out some of the birds here.....

Hooded Oriole

Indian Nuthatch

Indian Grey Hornbill

Oriental Whiteeye

Plum Headed Parakeet

White Browed Fantail

Yellow Fronted Leafbird

Rest of the day was spent lazing around the resort and it was an early night to bed, after the rigours of the travel and the need for an early start next morning for our first foray into the Jungle. All our Safari trips were booked for either Tala or Magadhi zone and we started the day with Tala.

Siddh Baba Juvenile

Almost immediately into the Safari we got a glimpse of one of the Siddh Baba Cubs. The heat of the day meant that the Tigers were well into the sheltered areas in the underbrush and hard to sight. But this was a significant sighting since this happened to be the first time my parents ever saw a tiger in the wild.  This trip was different from the previous one in the sense that we were to see juveniles while the adults were rarely seen if ever.

Driving ahead, we were lucky to get a glimpse of a Sloth Bear, who had come out of the forest looking for water. Unfortunately the visitors in the vehicle ahead screamed in excitement, which set the bear off running for cover. So much for the oft repeated warnings by drivers and guides to keep silent....

Sloth Bear

Indian/ Long Billed Vulture

White Backed Vulture

Soon after, we were greeted by the sights of Vultures coming off the Bandhavgarh cliffs for their early morning drink of water. A mix of Long Billed Vultures, White Backed Vultures. It was good to see these birds who have been poisoned to the very brink of extinction and are only now reaching a somewhat stable state maintaining their population.



The other notable sightings during the various safaris were Bamerason sitting on a kill made by one of his cubs from the tigess Solo.

Indian Pitta

Tigress Solo

Bamera Son sitting at the Kill made by one of his cubs

One of Dotty's Cubs

Dotty Juvenile

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Lapwing Harassing a Crested Serpent Eagle trying to get a drink

The Deadly Stare - Jungle Owlet

Sambar Scape

My first ever Nightjar - Savannah Nightjar

Another First... Stork Billed Kingfisher

Sheshshaiyya - Lord Vishnu reclining on Sheshnag

The Stare....

I'd recommend that you look up https://birdwing.in/ and get in touch with Kesava or Santosh if you are looking for a trip that combines thrilling experiences that wildlife encounters bring, combined with a healthy dose of photography inputs.

Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve

Wild Life trips

Bandhavgarh Plateau

Having seen some brilliant pictures and write ups about the beauty and wonder of Bandhavgarh made it a must visit for me. Sitting with Kesavamurthy of Birdwing, one night after a safari at Corbett, I asked him to pen me in for the next trip planned to this wonderful place. So the seeds of this trip were sown way back in Feb 2018.

This was a trip that I planned to make with the family and after several yes and nos, the family finally confirmed their coming along. The nearest airport being Jabalpur sort of complicated the travel plans, with no direct connectivity between Bangalore where I reside, to Jabalpur. The excitement of travelling to a place of dreams also meant that I wan't thinking straight!! Afterall if I did, I would have landed up saving a tidy sum of money on travel.

The fact that flight to Jabalpur from Hyderabad was at around 11:00, meant that we had to be at Hyderabad in the morning. Had I planned better, we could have taken the overnight train or bus to Hyderabad and hopped on to the flight to Jabalpur.

Worse was yet to come!! The airline for the flight to Jabalpur announced their winter schedule, which preponed the flights by almost 2 hours, affecting our final Safari towards the end of the trip.

Rants aside, Bandhavagarh is pure Gold literally and figuratively!! Initially I was wondering why were the vehicles racing to be the first at the gate to enter the forest....Our first trip in was into the Magadhi zone and soon enough, I knew why!!

We were literally eating dust...raised by the wake of the vehicle ahead! Soon enough, we spotted a couple of Indian Grey Hornbills and my excitement rose...pretty soon our driver.... Guddu got word of a tiger and soon we were racing across the plains....holding on to dear life with one hand and the camera in the other!

Bamera Son! 

It was a sight to behold....a huge male tiger was sighted walking across the plains and we raced to catch him on the other side and what a sight he was!! The Son of Bamera! Such a promising start set the expectations soaring sky high!! 

The rest of the trip was spent in wonder; recollecting the majesty and beauty of the tiger and dreaming of what is to come! We returned back to the Resort to freshen up and get ready for the afternoon.

Contrary to expectations, the afternoon trip into the Khitauli zone was an almost total washout. Such was the experience that we had actually packed up the gear to protect against the dust and as a result...missed out on an extremely rare opportunity:

Drive through

A jungle cat mom was carrying her kitten to a safer location and crossed our path. She even paused in the middle of the path to get a better grip on the kitten and then went on her way.


Next morning we were assigned to the Tala Zone. Before we go further, a little bit about Bandhavgarh....

Bandhavgarh National Park is  located in the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh was declared a national park in 1968, with an area of 105 square km. The buffer is spread over the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni,and totals 820 square km. 

The park derives its name from the most prominent hillock of the area, which was said to be given by Lord Rama to his brother Lakshmana to keep a watch on Lanka. Hence the name Bandhavgarh (Sanskrit: Brother's Fort).

The three main zones of the national park are Tala, Magdhi and Khitauli. Tala is the richest zone in terms of biodiversity, mainly tigers. Together, these three ranges comprise the 'Core' of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve constituting a total area of 716 km2. The buffer zone is spread over the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni and totals another 820 square km. The legal status as a national park dates back to 1968, but was limited only to the present Tala range for a considerable length of time. In 1993 the present scheme of things was put in place.

According to biogeographic classification, the area lies in Zone 6A- Deccan Peninsula, Central Highlands (Rodgers, Panwar & Mathur, 2000). The classification of Champion & Seth lists the area under Northern India Moist Deciduous Forests. The vegetation is chiefly of Sal forest in the valleys and on the lower slopes, gradually changing to mixed deciduous forest on the hills and in the hotter drier areas of the park in the south and west.

Landscape and Vegetation

The wide valleys along the streams carry long linear grasslands flanked by Sal forests. Rich mixed forests consisting of Sal (shorea rubusta), Saja, Salai, and Dhobin, etc. with dense bamboo thickets occur in many places. These together provide Bandhavgarh its rich biodiversity.

Back to our trip. We reached the Tala Gate and were greeted by a filming crew. I was carrying mixed feelings about their presence, however this was soon forgotten. No sooner than we entered Tala, did we hear the news about a tiger near the road. Soon it was a mad dash to reach the point where the tiger was sighted.

 Just looking at the video, one will be able to make out that the vehicle drivers and guides seem to go bonkers at the sight of a tiger. Being our first visit, we were not aware of this fact and as a result, many an opportunity to make beautiful pictures went abegging.

Tigress Spotty

The second tiger to be spotted was Spotty. She has recently delivered three cubs and was the subject of the filming crew. This meant that Spotty not only had to brave the invading horde of tourists(including us!) but also the filming crew's elephants and filming equipment. No wonder she looked pissed!!

The rest of the trip was an anticlimax after the two sightings. However it does not take away the fact that Bandhavgarh is probably as good if not better than Corbett Tiger Reserve, with its beauty, varied landscapes, flora and not to mention the fauna. 

I'm definitely looking forward to going back soon!!

Crow mobbing a Crested Serpent Eagle

Indian Jackal

Indian Grey Hornbill

Indian Roller/ NeelKanth 

Lesser Adjutant Stork

Black Faced Langur/ Hanuman Langur

Sambar Stag

Shikra