Monday, December 21, 2020

Choosing Right Tiger Reserve and Safari Zone

It is a major decision and would make or break your safari holiday in India. Choosing a tiger reserve is not easy if you are not familiar with the wildlife landscape of the country. There are a large number of reserves and National Parks which are popular for their tourism infrastructure as well as offer good sightings of megafauna and birds. 

Bandhavgarh National Park 

Diverse wildlife means conserving an indicator species in this country since that's what is accorded priority after a ravage of a few centuries. Lot many ecosystems were destroyed and lot many species became endangered and few become extinct. Nevertheless, there are efforts to conserve the dwindling nature and preserve the species facing extinction. This is why there is a great effort to save the tiger, Asiatic Lion, and the Rhino to name a few. 

Likewise, the tiger reserves are under the aegis of Project Tiger a conservation program that is at the forefront of saving the species.  But this is not enough since money has to be generated for the purpose and thus twenty percent area of core or critical tiger habitat is reserved for tourism. Of late even the outer ring of the PAs or the buffer zone has been facilitating tourism of safari.      

Tiger

Tourism generates revenue for conservation but then it can generate a lot of human nuisance as well. Thus to prevent this a set of rules has been framed by the State Forest Departments to regulate this activity. The most crucial step has been to limit the movement of vehicles in the parks. This prevents the clustering of the vehicles at one spot and also limits disturbance to the animals. This is facilitated by issuing permits for safari. Each tiger reserve limits vehicles as per the area and capacity and only those with a permit are allowed to explore the core in an open jeep or canter. Hence in order to enjoy a safari holiday in the parks, you have to secure a permit or permits for safari and this can be done online.       

For a successful safari targeting the big cat, one needs to study the matter a bit. If you are connected with the landscape through hoteliers, tour operators, or naturalists you will get a fair idea about choosing the right reserve as per your travel plan. You can get a fair idea from social media connections on Indian Wildlife and there is no shortage of groups or online communities for this. After having chosen the right reserve the next question that arises is choosing the right zone or zones for productivity. This has to be done because you are restricted to a particular zone for each safari or game ride. For this too you need to resort to the mechanism mentioned in this blog post.         


Some of the popular tiger reserves in India are mentioned below: 

  • Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve
  • Kanha Tiger Reserve 
  • Ranthambore Tiger Reserve
  • Pench Tiger Reserve 
  • Tadoba Tiger Reserve
  • Corbett Tiger Reserve
  • Periyar Tiger Reserve 
  • Panna Tiger Reserve 
These are the reserve known for high tiger sightings and hence the target of tourists. If you are on an extended stay in the park then choose zones in consultation with the people mentioned above. Thus you can book tiger safari yourself online at State Portals. The best option is to choose a reliable tour operator and book the package it is offering to big cats in India. Booking permits in advance is a wise option for by the time you reach the gate to procure one the limit could have been exhausted.  

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Uday Freelances as Naturalist in Central India. He is an avid birder and tiger enthusiast. He blogs on tigers, wildlife and birds. He also writes on the environment and conservation.

Uday also provides SEO Services and Website Contents in English. He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur in Summer Holidays.
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Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
09755089323 
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Friday, May 8, 2020

Gaur - Indian Bison

Bison (Bos Gaurus) or Gaur

Well, it is not a bison, the bovine belongs to the OX race but the familiarity of this huge bovine arrives due to the misnomer. Ox is supposed to be easily trained and domesticated but this animal does not seem to follow the scientific facts. He is nowhere domesticated at least in India. The mammals are found in many Asian countries but the status is vulnerable due to poaching and human encroachment.

In Hindi, it is known as gaur a tribal inflection that literately points to gau or cow in English. Hence this animal is called a gaur almost all of the country. Well at least in literature it is known as that. 

The fully grown male may weigh around one ton and during nonbreeding periods they stay together in a small group of two or three. Both sexes have horns and the dorsal ridge is much more prominent on the bulls which are also darker in coloration. The white stockings and the pale muzzle are another hallmark distinction apart from the bulk and height that among males could be six feet. In appearance, they are nowhere closer to the wild water buffalo (bubalis bubalis) hence identity is not confused. The latter is found in herds in marshy grasslands in few reserves and on the verge of extinction. 



The female and young form a larger herd of twenty to forty. The females may weigh up to seven hundred kilograms. They give birth to a single calf rarely two which can be seen alongside. The gestation period is of nine months and breeding peaks during the winters although they mate all around.

The bovine is very protective of the young ones and can immediately form a protective ring whence they sense danger. Their main predator is the tiger but young ones can fall prey to a leopard, crocodile, wild dog, or python. They have been known to kill big cats in an encounter but the latter is usually the winner. Sparring males can be dangerous and they have been known to men in a fit of anger.  

They are vulnerable everywhere but in recent times faring better in India due to conservation inputs. At Kanha National Park Indian bison population is over 2000 and this is a remarkable recovery after the epidemic in 1976 probably a case of foot and mouth disease or rinderpest. The disease is introduced by the intruding livestock which needs to be inoculated around the reserves.       

By nature, the coarse grazer is timid and shies away from humans but there have been instances of charge whence agitated. They usually graze coarse vegetation but are also found in the grasslands in the dry seasons.

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Uday Freelances as Naturalist in Central India. He is an avid birder and tiger enthusiast. He blogs on tigers, wildlife, and birds. He also writes about the environment and conservation.

Uday provides SEO Services and Website Content in English. He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur during Summer Holidays.
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Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
09755089323 
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In Kanha, the conservation practices have been very successful and they can now be seen in the buffer zone as well in pockets of forests that are still present. They are not seen near cultivation and probably do not enter. The habitat preference is the highlands in the reserves but descends in summer due to duress. On many occasions, I  have seen them peeling off barks as supplements during the dry season. Though they are not partial to water or marshy lands they can be seen often in summer to quench thirst in herds.