Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve — Attraction in Maharashtra

This was my first visit to Tadoba National park. I was traveling with my Parents, my sister, one of my Aunt and his son, it was the first time for all of us and we absolutely loved it. Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is located in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra state, India. It is Maharashtra's oldest and largest national park. Created in 1995, The location of the park is the main reason to visit since it is only 2 hours’ drive from Nagpur on a good road. The closest Railhead is Chandrapur which 45 Km away.

We visited during the first week of January and it was extremely cold at that time. I had pre-booked for my safari 4 months in advance, but they do have a “Tatkal” quota for all gates at a price. I had selected the Moharli gate because after quite a research I came to know that the chances of Tiger seeing is more in this buffer zone. The entry fee to the park includes a guide and a permit for registered Maruti Gypsy which can seat 6 persons in addition to the guide, though it does not include the vehicle and the driver which you have to arrange. Most hotels and resorts are happy to organize this for you. Each gate has a limited number of entries per day. The morning safari is from 6.30AM till 10.30AM and evening safari is from 2.30Pm till 6.30PM during the winter period of 1st October till 31st March. While summer times from 1st April are 6.00AM till 10.00AM and 3.00Pm till 7.00PM.The entry to the park is very well organized and requires an identity proof which you have used at the time of booking, so do not forget to bring that, also mobile phones are not allowed inside the jungle.

After my first safari, We were quite disappointed with buffer zone safari as we did not see much of wildlife except a Neelgai and spotted deer. Also, the quality of the guides is not very good in the buffer zone. So, we decided to book the tatkal tickets for the core Agarzari zone where the tigress Madhu and her 3 cubs were sighted for 2 days. We had our morning safari of Agarzari zone timed at 6:00 Am. It was a chilly morning with the temperature of 4-degree Celcius. It was a hell of an experience. The core zone safaris were really good and we sighted tigers and lots of other birds and animals during safari and guides were also very good and informative. there a number of water holes which are powered by solar power to fill water during the scorching summer heat. Most animals are found near these watering holes during summer time. The park is the home to a large variety of animal species like Wolf, Jackal, Wild dogs, Fox, Hyenas, Spotted Deer, Wild Boars, Barking deer, Gaurs, Four-horned Antelopes, Blue Bulls, Indian Pangolins, Common Languor’s, Porcupines, Sambar, Spotted deer, Rhesus macaque, Leopard, Rusty-spotted cat, Jungle cat, Leopard cat, Sloth bear etc. Some very rare species of birds like Honey-buzzard, Shy jungle fowl, Grey-headed fishing eagle, Indian Pitta, Indian Scimitar Babbler, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Painted Francolin, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, The park does not allow handphones or mobile phones inside and hence you may need an extra camera for movie recordings. Each camera is charged separately. If I can remember correctly, the cameras below 250mm lens are charged Rs 200 while the longer lens cameras are charged Rs 250. I am not sure about the charges for movie cameras. A safari cap, sunglasses, and water are a must during the afternoon safari and also don’t forget to get a dust cover for your camera as it can get very dusty. Also, keep in mind that the Park is closed on every Tuesday.

Core Gates of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve:- Mohali, Khutwanda, Navegaon, Kolara, Kolsa – Zari, Pangdi #Buffer gates of Tadoba where Safari starts are: Alizanza Zone, Devada Adegaon, Agarzari, Junona, Kolara Buffer Gate, Ramdegi Buffer Gate

I would highly recommend this park for all wildlife enthusiasts and wildlife photographers due to its easy accessibility and the highest tiger sighting index in India. Also, the quality of the resorts just outside the park is...

Date of travel: Aug end 2021

In monsoon core areas are closed, only buffer is open. Even in off season, all safaris were booked, especially in weekends. So make sure you get your bookings done in advance, spot bookings were not available

Zone: Buffer zone near Moharli

Junona Gate and Adegaon/Dewada gate - took 5 safaris in total.

Spotted tiger collarwali once at very close quarters.

Spotted another tiger from far away during transfer from hotel to gate at Nalla/ grassland near Moharli village

Some pointers about buffer zone gates near Moharli

Adegaon and Dewada are same gates eventhough you can select each differently from the Safari booking website

The area of the jungle from both Junona and Dewada/Adegaon is same, only entry gates are different

Agarzari gate gives access to a different area of the buffer zone jungle

Agarzari gate is right opposite to Dewada/Adegaon gate

Above gates are buffer zone gates, Moharli gate gives access to core, but core is not open during monsoon season

About tigers in this area:

Madhu/ Choti Madhu tigress - She has 3 cubs, but we were told that they were seen only once, she has not brought them out in fear of other male tigers - we saw a glimpse of her crossing the naala near Moharli village

Sonam - Mainly resides in core, sometimes visits buffer

Collarwali - Does not have collar on her, but had earlier during part of some study. She is daughter of tigress Lara. Still young, no cubs.

W - another tigress

Heard 2 male tiger names - Bajrang and Ambeuttara. Saw one of their pugmarks(very fresh) while on a Safari, it were most likely of Ambeuttara, we were told that he is very shy

2 more grown male cubs of W are found in this buffer, however due to bad road conditions in monsoon, that part was closed/not reachable. We are told that both cubs are very bold

Stay:

We stayed at MTDC, however it seems it would be cheaper to stay at a homestay. Saw Akska's homestay near Moharli(core) gate and one more, don't recall the name.

MTDC tadoba:

Location:

It is around 1 km from Moharli village and Moharli core gate

Junona Gate is at about 300 m (walking distance)

Agarzari and Dewada are about 7-8 km from MTDC. MTDC staff will arrange pickup from resort, but it will cost Rs. 800/- for to and fro transfer. Make sure to let them know in advance so that they can make calls and arrange it

Food:

Average

no room service, but you can call and place and order ahead of time

Tea/coffee served at 5:30 before Safari

You can pre-order bread-butter or sandwich to carry with you for Safari if you inform previous night.

Rooms/property:

-Stayed at deluxe room, nice room, working AC.

Clean bathrooms with working water heater.

Good play area with swings etc, though there was no time to spend there

-Can be booked online via mtdc website.

Room prices are more on weekends

No internet/wifi

Electricity was there throughout for the 3 nights/days we spent there

Traveled from Pune to Nagpur by flight and then to TATR by taxi (Innova) - 4500/- for one way transfer

About mobile reception - only Jio has reception in this area. We had to borrow phones from staff/driver to make call home as we did not have Jio.

Aahh, few more things:

We spotted Indian Gaur, cheetal/spotted deer, sambar deer, mongoose, tree shrew

In birds were spotted honey buzzard, Shikra, serpent eagle, tickles clue Flycatcher, flock of subadult Orange headed thrush sitting in the ground, flock of Indian leafbirds, lesser flameback woodpecker, yellow crowned woodpecker, Indian roller, spotted owlets, 5 baby peacocks with their mother, red spurfowl, jungle fowl, bush quail

Some groups were luckier and spotted leopard and Sloth bear. Some had worse luck and did not...

Though I give 'average' rating, we did enjoy this deciduous forest to the fullest with various rare trees in full bloom, rare wildlife. Specially the second safari in Alizhanza buffer where it had rained previous night - lots of bird activity early in the morning. Indian Curlews, different buzzards, crested serpent eagles some of the rare spotting, Driver was quite knowledgeable with birds too. Chausinghas, neelgais, chitals, sambars, gaurs are some of the wild mammals we could get a good view of apart from some rare lizards. And ofcourse we did spot tigers as well and thats what seem to make a difference for the safari here.... If you dont see tiger, you have not seen anything :(

My rating goes low only for safari which turns into only 'tiger chase'. Even though we mentioned we wanted to see everything, somehow guide/drivers were tuned only to target tigers. They constantly choose to go behind tigers, with our previous experiences, we had to insist a bit hard on not to spend time chasing tigers, sit along with crowd and wait for calls, where there would be no other wildlife could be experienced with lots of noise. Thankfully with our naturalist from resort who could direct the guide/driver we did get good view of 2 tigers and then with our hard insistence we moved away before crowd gathered.

Probably blame doesn't fully goes to the drivers and guide, crowd here predominantly look for only tiger. Everyone seem to do minimum 2-3 safaris in a day for minimum of 3 days in this Tiger Reserve. Heard people talking about spotting 10 to 15 tigers in a day. Will be back with a great disappointment when they could spot none or spot one from distance. There are many jeeps with very small children who would be restless and crying or group of playful younger children with their noise again disturbing the animals around.

Even the safari management has its own problems. There seems to be very less restriction on crowding. Since all the gates leads to single area, lots of jeeps seem to gather on the same area where one tiger is walking or resting. I am no expert in tiger behavior, but tiger didn't seem happy and relaxed as in Kanha or Bhandavgarh. Either because of density in small area or too much disturbance due to 3 full fledged safaries allowed for a day. Male tigers injured with their fights - female tiger looked stressed to. I don't think we can dismiss solely on their natural behavior. Hearing stories of people spotting 21 tigers in a day - seems like a hard reality even if one goes by basic math considering tigers territorial area and how much distance could be covered by a jeep with 20kmph in span of 12 hours. Something seems a miss here.

Its good to see there is no commercial setup for serving food etc inside the national park during Safari and wherever we stopped it was quite clean and decent toilets were provided in buffer zone.

Forest department seem to have put more restriction now with GPS on vehicles etc. But more restriction on number of vehicles, crowding, discouraging jeeps to get too close to wild animals.

I can only urge tourists to be come travelers and enjoy the forests, leave your rat race in your city and go to such pristine jungles, enjoy what comes your way with full heart. There are always zoos and Nat Geo which brings us animals in best possible way with much much less cost and hassle. Unless as citizens if dont feel like being sensitive towards these last remaining bits of wild spaces, no government departments...