TIGERS, EXCEPT FOR MOTHERS WITH CUBS, are solitary animals. They are an endangered and protected species with most living in national parks like Kanha and Bandhavgarh in eastern Madhya Pradesh. Seeing one of the big cats is anything but guaranteed. As the saying goes, “You pays your money and you takes your chance.” Kanha National Park, for instance, claims 200 tigers spread over nearly 2000 square kilometers while Bandhavgarh is ¼ the size with 50 tigers. Either way that’s one tiger per ten square kilometers and unless a tiger stops near one of the jeep trails, odds are you will be skunked.
Glitzy rooms but no tigers
Tigers may be solitary, not so those who seek them. Jeeps (actually Suzuki Samurai clones) filled with visitors line up at Kanha’s two gates at 6:30AM and caravan around set circuits looking for wildlife. Tarun, the manager of Kanha Jungle Lodge, arranged both a morning and afternoon “safari” for our one-day stay. Vindon, the Lodge’s naturalist and driver, did everything he could to find a tiger but the nearest we came was some fresh prints in the sand. We even sat in pouring rain in the open jeep waiting to intercept one but it seems tigers have more sense than humans. This time, at least, we were wearing our Gore-tex. The weather and the sightings improved after breakfast and the afternoon drive seemed like a totally different day. The tigers were hiding but we saw the endemic barasingha deer, a sloth bear, and added a dozen new birds to our list.
Sloth Bear
Hiring a car is the most comfortable way to get around Madhya Pradesh and the five-hour drive from Kanha to Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge was much more pleasant than the nine hours it took from Bhopal to Kanha. The same family, who are also the founders of the environmental organization Project Tiger, own both lodges. Each lodge is opulent, by our standards at least, and the $105 room rate includes all meals, taxes and tips. The rooms are spacious and comfortable and the service borders on intrusive. There is someone waiting to serve you every time you turn around; they even slipped hot water bottles into our bed while we ate dinner! While Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge is better appointed, Kanha Jungle Lodge has a much more personal feel; Tarun is always on hand to help and Vindon really knows his birds.
Blue-bearded bee-eater
Bandhavgarh National Park has the better reputation when it comes to the likelihood of seeing tigers – Lonely Planet says 99.99% – but we preferred Kanha. Maybe because of its smaller size, Bandhavgarh is regulated to death. Only 55 jeeps are permitted inside and most of the tickets are hoovered up by tour groups. (We were wait-listed yesterday and had to hang out until 7:00 to see if we could even get in.) The guides and drivers seem interested only in tigers, despite what their clients want. Ours didn’t even have binoculars! They seemed put out when we asked to stop for a bird. Rather than repeat the disappointing – and expensive – safari today, we birded on our own along the park boundary. It wasn’t great but least we could call the shots. All things considered, we should have stayed at Kanha and given Bandhavgarh a miss. This isn’t sour grapes on our part; we didn’t see a tiger at either place! Nor did anyone else, we later heard.
