Visiting the national park and experiencing a jeep safari was on our bucket list for so long. Like everyone else, the idea of seeing wild animals especially tigers in their natural habitat excites us. So when we decided to visit Maharashtra in December 2021, we wanted to leave a couple of days for the jeep safari in a national park.
Our Plan
We were to visit Pune, Shirdi, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. We had thought of either starting or ending our trip to Nagpur to visit either Tadoba National Park or Pench National Park. There are direct flights between Delhi and Nagpur and flying either to or from Nagpur was the most logistically viable option. Both national parks are within 150 kilometres of Nagpur. While Tadoba National Park is completely within Maharashtra borders, Pench National Park is shared between the states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
We zeroed on Pench National Park as it allows to book individual seats in a 6-seater jeep whereas Tadoba National Park only allows booking of a full jeep. We decided to take two jeep safaris, both from Turia Gate which is the most famous gate of the park and is located in Madhya Pradesh. The plan was to take an evening flight from Delhi to Nagpur, stay a night there, leave for Pench National Park in the morning, take an evening jeep safari, stay at a resort near Turia gate in Pench National Park, take a morning jeep safari, and leave for Nagpur airport to board a flight to Pune.
Tiger N Woods – Our resort in Pench National Park
We had booked a one night stay in Tiger N Woods resort which is less than 2 kilometres away from Turia Gate. It costs us 2250 INR for a wooden machan room with breakfast included. We got it at 50% discount thanks to Megha’s friend who lives near Pench National Park and had a 50% discount coupon. He also gave us a 1+1 dinner buffet coupon.
Room
The room was quite lovely and spacious. It was built like a treehouse and had rustic wooden decor that added to its charm. The balcony opened out into the forest which was wonderful for bird watching.
Food
As we had a 1+1 dinner buffet coupon, we opted for dinner in the resort rather than looking for a restaurant outside. It costs 500 INR per person but we paid 500 for both of us which we think was quite reasonable for a dinner buffet. The dinner was a total letdown in taste. They had chole, dal, and aloo as sabzis and none of them was any good. Even Gulab Jamun had a bit of weird taste.
The next day, we were given a basket that had our packed breakfast as we had a morning safari at 6 AM. It felt like we were going for a picnic carrying a basket. The breakfast had aloo paranthas, bananas, sandwiches, muffins, chips, juice packets and water bottles.
Evening Jeep Safari
The evening jeep safari in Pench National Park was 2.5 hours long from 3 PM to 5:30 PM. All the jeeps started entering the gate at 3 PM sharp, moving in a single file for about a kilometre and two before taking different routes. Every jeep has to have a driver and a guide apart from a maximum of 6 visitors. Our jeep had three more visitors apart from us, all of them were wildlife enthusiasts carrying their big professional cameras.
This was our first ever jeep safari and we were excited and hoping to see many different animals. But our fellow visitors were only interested in seeing the tiger. They kept moving the jeep front and back within a two-kilometre distance based on morning tiger sighting information and alarm calls. The allocated time got finished and neither did we see any tigers or many other animals. Don’t get us wrong, we also wanted to see the tiger but we would also have got content with other animal sightings. On 2.5 hour-long jeep safari, we only got to see langurs, peacocks, a jackal, and many deers. We returned to the resort with a feeling of disappointment but hoped for a better time on the morning safari the next day.
Morning Jeep Safari
The next day, we woke up at 5 AM to get ready for a 5-hour long jeep safari in Pench National Park from 6:30 AM to 11:30 AM. We had our morning tea, picked up our breakfast basket and left for Turia Gate. This time in our jeep, we were grouped with two other couples like us. The safari started on time and it was too cold. We had our jackets and winter caps but we were still shivering. For the first hour, we covered lots of areas chasing the paw marks of the tiger. We stopped for a few minutes near the pond as tigers and other animals come there to drink water, but we had no luck. We saw deer, monkeys, langurs, jackals, peacocks, and Indian Gaur in between all that tiger chasing.
Soon, we heard the alarm call and we stopped the jeep near the open field full of deer in anticipation of seeing the tiger hunting its prey. Soon, many more jeeps also stopped as the alarm call became louder.
Travel Tip: Do not forget to take a cap (protect hair from dust), binoculars and sunglasses for your jeep safari.
We waited and waited and finally saw a tigress slinking for a couple of seconds before she disappeared behind the tree. All the jeeps waited for more than 30 minutes there hoping to catch more than a glimpse of her but she was not in the mood to grant our wish.
We left and soon stopped for about half an hour for breakfast. There was a small canteen selling tea and pakoras. We sat on a bench and had our breakfast. There was also a washroom which was a bit smelly but still usable.
The second half of the safari felt like a drag. Both driver and guide seemed to have lost interest in driving around and looking for animals. Sun was also beating down and with multiple layers of woollen clothes, it started getting hot. We returned to the gate half an hour early at 11 AM.
The morning safari in Pench National Park was a mixed experience. While pre-breakfast time was thrilling in search of a tiger, post-breakfast time was pure boring.
Final Thoughts
Overall, our first safari experience was disappointing. As it was a peak winter season and tiger sighting is pure luck and cannot be planned, we were prepared that we might not see the tiger. But what we were not prepared for was the lack of animals in the Pench National Park. We hardly saw 7-8 animals in combined 7 hours of jeep safari, and most of them are common animals and do not require a national park visit to see them in the open.
It stings more when we consider the amount of money we spent to experience this. Even after not considering the extra flight we had to take to accommodate Pench National Park in our itinerary, we paid nearly 19K INR for 2 days whereas our 9 days in Maharashtra did cost us only 40K INR.
Cost Breakup
| 1-night hotel stay in Nagpur | 1500 INR |
| 1-night stay in Tiger N Woods resort | 2250 INR |
| 2 jeep safari for two persons (inclusive of jeep, guide and permit charges) | 6000 INR |
| Cab rental for 2 days from Nagpur to Nagpur | 7000 INR |
| Food and miscellaneous charges | 2000 INR |
| Total | 18750 INR |
Hi, Its best to book the entire jeep, in this way you wont get others especially those troublesome photographers with huge lens who obstruct everyone’s view and also dominate the scene
Yeah, but booking the entire jeep would have cost us 3x more and made the trip very expensive. Not everyone can afford to pay such steep amount for a jeep safari.