Ideally for a forest trip you should plan at least 4-5 months earlier. I know people who have their yearly calendars made for forest visits and expeditions. So, the earlier is better.
The points mentioned below may ideally seem simple but trust me it needs a lot of effort and hard work to drill down to the specifics and set off. The major part depends on the gate chosen. I would subsequently try to explain each one of them in the way I plan my trips… I will always appreciate my fellow travellers commenting on other ways/ideas and tips they have which can help my readers.
The points mentioned below may ideally seem simple but trust me it needs a lot of effort and hard work to drill down to the specifics and set off. The major part depends on the gate chosen. I would subsequently try to explain each one of them in the way I plan my trips… I will always appreciate my fellow travellers commenting on other ways/ideas and tips they have which can help my readers.
There are a couple of things which you should be ready about before you consider yourself ready:
- you should have the route map planned and get your travel tickets done
- You must be clear on what modes of transports needs to be availed till you reach your destination
- Plan for hotels which are nearer to the forest gates
- Make a budget for your trip and allocate most part of the budget for safaris and keep the staying and fooding at basics
- Choose the most appropriate entry gates and book your safari
- prepare your gadgets - Camera and Video
- Make a checklist of things to include in your luggage. (You can check my blog “Forest- Far from the Rest” to plan your luggage.)
Plan the route map
First pick up a place and a forest reserve you intend to visit. In India we have more than 110 National Parks and approximately about 50 Wildlife sanctuaries out of which there are about 45-50 Tiger reserves!! So I am sure picking up a name is not the biggest deal based on what flora and fauna habitat interests you. If you are a tiger lover then you will atleast have 50 names to deal with; out of which anyone can be picked. Once you choose the destination, you have to do some research on how to reach the place. The best way to do is either getting a reference from some one you know who has already been to the place. If you are lucky enough to get one, your relief. If not, you will have to dig your own info out.
- Google search on the place to see the nearest station/ airport
- Visit the official site of the forest or the national park or the wildlife sanctuary to collect further info
- See if you can get some agents who can help you arrange the logistics.
- Get information and budgetary estimates from different sources like logistics vendors, hotels, forums etc...
Once you get all this info, you can now set the time and tenure of the trip, decide on the train/flight to board and also decide on the lead time to reach to the nearest destination to the forests. Usually, in most of the places, you will find that the nearest railway station or the airport is quite far from the main entry zone of the forest, quite obvious being these are far from the core city areas. So now that you have the plan in mind and information in place, start mapping them together.
How to pin your plan for a better execution
For a forest trip, as I always say, plan most of your time and money to avail the safaris. So spend more time in the forest than just leisure...
- First book your train tickets, as they open 4 months ago you will be in a better position to get the tickets when you start planning 4- 5 months ahead. (in some cases it is better recommended to book your safari, if possible, before booking your trip tickets)
- When you book a train/ flight, try book a train/ flight which lands in morning or latest by the afternoon. Once you land you should hurry to reach your destination hotel which must be nearer to the forest entry gates. I do not recommend that you stay nearer to the railway station or the airport as you must be exhausted and then you leave for your final destination next morning. You will unnecessarily waste time in the city. (I have explained below further on how to chose the right gate).
- Why I emphasise on reaching your near forest destination is because, you will have to arrange a couple of things once you reach the hotel, which i will explain in the subsequent sections.
- In case you do not get the train tickets forget it, you have tatkal, take the immediate next step to book the safaris from the official sites. Rather in some cases, for popular forests, I would recommend you to book the safari first to see the availability and then book the tickets.
- For booking a safari, generally each forest has 2 to max 3 safaris in a day, starting from early morning. Book back to back safaris. At a go for bigger reserves you may not be able to cover 3-4 gates in a mid length trip of 3 Nights. So it does not matter if you visit one gate twice. The probability of sighting increases.
- For safaris take a mix of a canter and gypsy safari...
- Book a vehicle beforehand to pick you up from your drop location and take you to the final destination of your stay. Do not waste time by searching vehicles after you get down. You may assume that taking something after you reach may save your money. But guys it also costs you time!! Moreover, there is not much difference in a pre-book, but what you save is time.
Considerations for Safari Booking
Most of the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have their own websites through which you can book a safari within the jungle. The main skill lies in selecting the gates as most of these have multiple gates. Some of these gates lead to buffer areas and some of these lead to core areas. Core areas generally have better probability of sighting of carnivorous beats and these are more dense and with less human habitat. To select the right gate you will have to do some research and speak to some relevant people to get the right gate. For bigger wildlife parks do not restrict yourself to one gate (like for Tadoba, Ranathambore, Job Corbett etc). For smaller ones you will have only one or two gates which lead to core and rest shall be buffer zones.
Once you have selected the gates you want to book, check the dates available. In most of these you will find two types of vehicles One a JEEP/Gypsy (which shall accommodate max 6 people) and one a CANTER (which accommodates as high as 15-20 people).
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| On your left you see the Gypsies and on your right you see the Canter lined up at the Entry Gate |
Gypsies are costly but probabilities of sighting with a gypsy is very high. Gypsies can go in narrower parts of the jungle and can travel faster than the canters and offer a better probability of wildlife sighting. With each gypsy the forest authorities allot a driver and a guide who is responsible for taking you through the forest en-route.
A Canter give you the opportunity to travel with a bigger team, however, they are not as flexible as the gypsies but that does not mean that they are not good. Sighting is also possible in a canter but may be with a bit lesser probability only because of the fact that they are not as faster and flexible. However, we did have sighting in a canter too. So, as mentioned in my earlier post, the sighting is again a matter of luck!!
It is better if after booking the safari you book the train tickets. However, for some forests you may not find the safari booking open at the time of train booking. So, you will have to book your tickets earlier and then have to do the safari booking at the very first instance when the dates open. DO NOT MISS THE FIRST DATE as you may not get the safari booking done on the desired dates then. As I mentioned that you will have to plan on having most number of safaris, involve all members of your team to book different safaris simultaneously, to have better chance of booking done. Book two safaris in a day back to back with same or alternate zones.
On the day of the safari, you must reach the booking gate at-least 45mins earlier. On the gate, you will have to produce the booking slip at the counter where the forest authorities shall allot you the vehicle and the guide. Board on the vehicle and get ready to en-route!! If you are late in reaching to the gate and the gat closes for entry, then your booking is void, so please do not take the chance and liberty to be late. We have faced this and believe me it feels devastating.
Planning your Stay
There are many limited areas now where they allow you to stay inside the forest. All such provisions have now been closed down except some in Jim Corbett and Nagzira. So if you want to have the taste and feel of staying amongst the wild, go for these two places. I shall soon be writing on Nagzira which will provide more information to plan you Nagzira try.
For the Rest you will have good resorts and hotels in a vicinity of 5-10 kms from the forest gates. You just need to search and get the booking done in any of these resorts and hotels. Some of the resorts and hotels also have their own safari vehicles, wherever it is so allowed. So even these people can take care of your safari bookings. You may speak at the hotels and they may help you with the safari.
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| Madukunj and Latakunj inside Nagzira Forest Reserve Core |
In case you are staying inside the forest, fooding is very costly and very basic. Its like, you may have to pay Rs, 80 for an omelette!!. But believe me its worth it. However, wherever you stay just remember to have lighter food and more of water so that you do not end up upsetting your tummy and health over all else you shall jeopardise the entire trip…
Behave inside the Forest
When you are inside the forest, it is very important that you behave yourself.
- DO not throw any waste material or plastic items, packets, edibles etc in the forest
- DO NOT feed wild animals. Like most people I have seen feeding monkeys with biscuits etc. Never do that! It can be detrimental. Even the birds, do not feed them with anything.
- DO NOT shout, scream and chatter too much when on the safari. Your guide shall be keen in listening to forest calls and signs of sighting. The more you make noise you shall distract him and you shall be the one to bear the loss….
- DO NOT get down on the forest floor without the permission of your guide and driver
- DO NOT cary any cooked material in the forest especially ones with a strong smell especially non veg items.
- Carry a lot of water and dry stuffs like cake and buiscuits. Also carry an empty carry bag to throw your trash, which you can further dispose when you come out of the jungle.
- Even if you do not have a sighting of a TIGER, which all of us do expect, do not get disheartened, enjoy the beauty of the forest.
The App which helps you!!
Also for information, I follow a very good app which updates the sighting highlights on a daily basis across all gates and all national parks/sanctuaries is the “WildTrails Recent Sightings”. You may download the app and this will help you to plan your trip in terms of selecting the location and the gates. You can find the sighting history across all national parks and Tiger reserves and it also gives you a sighting index with a separate Tiger Sighting Index, which is amazing. This is the only app, I found till date, which gives you a complete details of sighting of all species and not only tigers. My thanks and kudos to WildTrails Technologies Pvt Ltd for the out-of-box thinking and presenting such a beautiful thing for the forest lovers. I am sure they must be doing a very hard work in mining such data and then presenting it ready to us. Go for it…
Get Set Go.....
Once all planned to set and go, prepare a checklist of things you will need to carry. See my last blog for more details, the link is mentioned below:
Well, do not forget to carry your photography gadgets that you have which may be a good smartphone to a high end camera or handy-cam with a good sizeable power-bank. In case you have dearth of storage in your devices, please cary your laptop too so that when you come to your hotel you may transfer the device dump into your laptop. Do not expect internet in all areas, you may be lucky if you find one.
Please do comment if you have any queries and in case you need any further details on this. You can even call and WhatsApp me. I will be ready and more than pleased to help….
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