Visiting a tiger country

To a wildlife lover nothing can be more exciting than making a journey to a tiger heaven. Tigers live in dense forests with lot of other animals some of which constitute their prey base. India has vast jungles along with major grasslands and wetlands. The altitude variation and climatic conditions give rise to many niche ecosystems that harbor diverse fauna and flora.

Element of Surprise

Unlike most of the Africa, Indian jungles hold an element of surprise. In India one will rarely come across large herds of animals. The jungle remains incredibly silent at times and shows no sign of life. Then in a split second the drama unfolds, and the spectacle can be spell bounding - a tiger on a hunt or a leopard on the prowl. Imagine and it can happen...whatever.

Tigers surprise you like no other animal can, for they are extremely secretive and shy animals but at the same time unpredictable. Just when you start believing that there is no tiger around one may pounce right in front of you as if from nowhere. Bengal tigers appear at most unlikely places and at unlikely times and then sit for long time or walk carelessly in your presence without even noticing you.

Hence visiting a tiger country again and again is not repetitive or boring for each is a unique visit in its own sense. You may never know what you will see, something which you have never ever witnessed before and will never ever witness again. The film completes in bits and pieces.

Tiger Land

The tiger country is rough, undulating and difficult to counter. Therefore trekking in a tiger reserve is usually for those who are fit enough to do so. One should have an idea of animal behavior and morphology in order to locate and sight them. Tigers give a lot of signals as they move around but not all animals do. Many herbivores as sambar, spotted deer and swamp deer can be very silent at times. The barking deer and four horned deer are shy and secretive and on the slightest hint of man they bolt like lightening. They can be the most difficult deer to sight.

Birding

Birding is very interesting in tiger reserves especially in the winters when migrants add up to the total. One needs a good pair of binoculars if he or she has to catch sight of a bird in the thick canopy of these tropical forests. In tiger lands one can see lot of forest birds but many times with difficulty one has to be well acquainted with calls.

Nightlife

Most of the animals in the jungles are nocturnal and can only be seen if you take a night drive in the forests. You need a powerful search light and keen sense to discover small wildlife and mega fauna in the pitch dark forest lands. The experience though thrilling can be a frightening as well if you stumble into and aggressive tiger or a leopard.

Hold yourself tight it is fun all the way.

The best country to see the tiger in the wild is India, that too Central India. The top tiger reserves in the state of Madhya Pradesh offer the best chance of wild tiger sightings. They are Kanha Bandhavgarh and Pench National Park. Besides Corbett tiger reserve and Ranthambhore tiger reserve also offer good tiger sightings in the wild.

These places are accessible from Jabalpur in MP and offer exciting wild life safaris and birding opportunities. The park safaris offers sightings of many Central Indian Mammalian species like tiger, leopard, swamp deer, sambar deer, spotted deer, wild boar, muntjac and four horned deer, wild dogs, sloth bear, gaur, nilgai or blue bull and langur. At some places like Pench Indian wolf can be encountered with. There are more than 200 species of birds to be check listed in these preserves.

The best way to organize a tiger tour in India is contact an Indian tour operator who specializes in wildlife safaris and birding. The tour operators offer best tour packages to India for wildlife watching and birding.As professional organizers they are well versed with wildlife tourism in India.

Most of the package tours are affordable and well organized. The group travel is the best way of traveling in India. The tourists are safer, affordable and in company of professional tour managers and naturalist guides.

Most of the natural land with appreciable biodiversity has been notified as protected areas. These areas are not subject to resource exploitation and human ingress. Those PAs having substantial tiger populations have been brought under the umbrella of Project Tiger.

Project Tiger is a program initiated to conserve tigers and the ecosystem as whole. Hence these National Parks and Sanctuaries are called tiger reserves.

The best tiger reserves in the country are:

Kanha Tiger Reserve
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve
Pench Tiger Reserve
Corbett Tiger Reserve
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve
Tadoba Tiger Reserve
Kaziranga Tiger Reserve
Manas Tiger Reserve
Satpura Tiger Reserve
Periyar Tiger Reserve
Bandipur Tiger Reserve
Nagarhole Tiger Reserve
Sunderban Tiger Reserve

There are many more tiger reserves in India. The first three are best for tiger safari since the big cats are in plentiful and easily seen. Besides tigers the reserves are home to bewildering diversity of flora and fauna in India. The other animals that live here are panther, wild elephant, bison, rhino, wild dog, deer, antelope and many endemic species. The endemic species of animals are not found outside the Indian subcontinent.