Wrapped in blankets, hot water bottles firmly placed on knees, hats keeping the morning chill off head and ears, huddled together we set off towards the park gate. A sense of excitement permeates the Jeep, what will the jungles reveal this morning? This is how the day begins on safari in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. Woken early with bed tea, a hang-over from the days of the Raj, clothes are quickly crawled into and ways are made to the waiting jeeps. The gates open and the jeeps enter filled with expectant guests. The sun starts to rise, the birds awaken, their song and flitting the first things that are noticed. The mists start to clear as the sun rises and herds of Chittal (spotted deer) and families of Sambar deer are spotted in the grasslands. Beautiful though they are, if they are grazing and looking relaxed then one knows that a predator is not in the vicinity.
If one stays at one of the better lodges in the park, and the ones that we insist on working together with, you will have a naturalist provided by the lodge, these guys know exactly the signs to look for in order to have the best chance of sighting a leopard or tiger. Of course pug marks, as fresh as possible are one of the best ways to see what has been on the move, but there are other tell tale signs of the jungle. Alarm calls from monkeys high in the trees also alert them that a cat is on the move, a stressed out looking herd of deer, tails in the air and also alarm calling, are another way.
Although the main aim of most people who venture to Madhya Pradesh on safari is to see a tiger, and they are extraordinarily beautiful, the jungles of central India are alive with a whole host of incredible wildlife. Leopards as already mentioned are one other species of cat here, but India actually has 15 species of wild cats, the largest species number of wild cats anywhere in the world! In addition there are Hyena, Jackal and Dhole, or the Indian wild dog, a beautiful animal, very much like the British fox.
Monkey species, the tell tale alarm callers include Rhesus Macaque and more commonly the Black Faced Langurs who work symbiotically with the Chital to look out for each other to save them becoming breakfast! Wild boar can often be seen wallowing in the mud or scurrying and scavenging in the forest undergrowth and Gaur, or the Indian Wild Bison amble through the Sal forests in their family herds.
There is rarely a dull moment on safari, even whilst the tiger remains elusive, the abundance of wildlife makes any safari in the park a fascinating experience. Of course, the birding is also fantastic. In Kanha National Park alone over 300 species have been recorded, both indigenous and migratory and many people come here to add to their tally! To the uninitiated, which we were when we first started visiting the jungles of central India, they can be quite hard to spot but once they are pointed out to you, they start to become more noticeable, even under your own steam. From the brilliantly coloured Indian Rollers, with their vivid shade of blue, the scarlet minivets, golden orioles, flame backed wood peckers which provide colour, to the enormous lesser adjutants, predatory raptors and scavenging vultures circling overhead which can also indicate a kill has been made and lead one to see a tigress possibly with cubs hidden nearby. What we also didn’t know in our early days was that birds change their appearance; sub adults can have different colouring to adults and again colour changes can happen as mating season approaches.
One thing we have learnt the more we have visited the jungles and tried out different lodges and safaris is that a naturalist can make or break a safari. A visit to the jungle will invariably be a lovely experience, but to have a naturalist with eagle eyes, who knows the intricacies of every sound, every bird call, every alarm call, who can engage you in the birds and alternative wildlife to bring alive the jungles and their wildlife as a whole, whilst also keeping eyes and ears alert for the merest hint of a predator can turn a safari experience into something educational, inspiration and magical.
Each of the lodges we use at Bespoke India Travel has been specifically chosen for its location, quality of accommodation and the fantastic naturalists we have been fortunate enough to meet.
We invite you to discover the wonderful jungles of Madhya Pradesh with us.
by Applenet 
