Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve

 Continued from my earlier post.

Our visit to Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve was planned on the next day after our arrival at Parsili.

The resort had arranged for the vehicle and requisite permits from the forest department and requested us to be ready to depart at 6 am.

As it had rained during the night and was raining again in the morning, we had doubts about our proposed safari materialising thinking that the tracks must have become muddy and slippery.  However, we found the jeeps waiting for us at the appointed time and the driver allayed our apprehension.  We had hired two jeeps each having seating for 6 visitors plus a guide and the driver.

The entrance to the reserve is 15 kilometres from the resort and the place is called Chamradol.  The area near the resort is called Baradol.  The nomenclature has distinct casteist connotations.  The road goes through farmlands and you find some small villages alongside as you approach the entrance.

At the entrance formalities were completed and each jeep was assigned a guide.  Thus the final cost per vehicle comes to ₹4480, comprising of permit cost ₹1500 plus jeep hire cost of ₹2500 and guide fee of ₹480.

The guide talked of a peripheral and a core zone as we entered the park and the jeeps entered the shallow stream of Banaas and crossed over.  I think the two zones perhaps refer to the Sanjay National Park and Sanjay-Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was early morning and pretty cold and a little windy in the jungle area.  We were not carrying woollens but face masks took the sting away by protecting the nose and most of our faces.  As the sun gradually rose and shone, it became very pleasant.  The air was very fresh and invigorating.  We didn't find any mud on the tracks despite the rains in the preceding night.

The guide pointed out to large number of Sal and Tendu trees around us.  The Tendu leaves are used in beedis and the Sal or Sakhu is considered valuable as a building material and for furniture.

The jungle abounded with deer of various variety, Neelgai and langoors.  The guides also drew our attention to certain birds here and there.

Everyone was filled with anticipation as the guide pointed out that we were in the core zone and there was a possibility of sighting a lion.  He showed us some pugmarks and also a heap of tiger poop but the search for the tiger kept proving futile.

On the way we met some security people and learnt that a tigress had laid a litter and was hiding with the cubs somewhere.

We kept moving on with the dry leaves on the track pressed by the vehicles shining with a metallic glint in the sunshine.  The guide ultimately blamed our failure to see a tiger on the rains last night and drove us to one of the watch towers.  We climbed to the top of the tower and had an aerial view of the forest all around us.  The guide pointed out that part of it extended into the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh.

We roamed around for some more time and decided to call it quits when it was almost 10:30 in the morning.  The vehicles took us back to the resort where we had a hearty breakfast which the resort was considerate enough to serve despite the timing being over.

We took note of the fact that we were only 100 kilometres away from Bandhavgarh National Park, but decided not to overshoot our plans and kept it as our next destination whenever the time came.