Wildlife Tours to North India CENTRAL INDIA
Taj Mahal
*Single room supplement.
Tour Destinations :
- Delhi
- Chambal
- Agra
- Bandhavgarh
- Kanha National Park
Tour Summary
Central India
This tour has been designed as the ideal
introduction to India for travellers visiting the country for the first time or wishing to return to see arguably some of its most impressive sights. It combines visits to game parks which offer excellent opportunities to see the most sought after mammal, the Tiger, with an opportunity to experience the historical and cultural delights of Delhi and Agra.
We begin in Delhi where a tour of this bustling city is sure to impress and excite the senses.
A short journey takes us to Agra from where we transfer via Fatephur Sikri to Bharatpur, arguably India’s most famous bird sanctuary. We will have two days of wildlife viewing in the Park. Returning to Agra we will visit India’s most well-known building, the beautiful Taj Mahal along with the Red Fort. An overnight train journey then transfers us south to two exceptional game parks, Bandhavgarh and Kanha, the latter of which provided the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. These parks, lying in the heart of India, are two of the best places to look for Tiger. They incorporate a mixture of sal and bamboo forests and grassy meadows and are also home to large numbers of grazing animals and a significant diversity of birds. Chital, Wild Boar, the enormous Guar, Barasingha (Swamp Deer), Indian Muntjac, Jungle Cat, Golden Jackal and Hanuman Langur are all present as is the very elusive Leopard. Bird life is prolific in the parks and we can anticipate a wide variety of species including cormorants, egrets,herons, storks, eagles, vultures, lapwings, parakeets, cuckoos, owls, kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, woodpeckers, wagtails, prinias, mynas, starlings, orioles and drongos.
After six nights in the parks we transfer back north by rail to Agra where we will visit the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort before proceeding to Chambal Sanctuary which is home to a superb variety of birds and river species including dolphins, crocodiles, otters and turtles. A final cultural visit will be made to Fatephur Sikri as we return to Delhi for our flight home at the conclusion of tour that is sure to provide some unforgettable experiences of the best that India has to offer.
The tour guarantees to give you some unforgettable experiences of the best that India has to offer.
Elephant
Itinerary
Day 1 : We depart in the evening on our overnight flight to Delhi.
Day 2 : Delhi.
After our overnight flight there will be time for relaxation in the morning before an afternoon tour of Old Delhi.
Days 3, 4 & 5 : Kanha National Park
We will leave our hotel early in the morning to catch the one and a half hour flight to Jabalpur from where we will travel by road to Kanha National Park, arriving in time for an afternoon game drive, dinner and the first night of our three night stay.
Kanha provided Kipling with the inspiration for his evocative Jungle Books – and it is easy to see why – the Park is a sublime mixture of sal and bamboo forests, with large areas of grassland and some marshes that support a wealth of wildlife.
During two more full days there will be morning and afternoon game drives, plus elephant rides, when appropriate, in this beautiful area — all escorted by experienced local naturalist guides. Kanha is a Project Tiger reserve and deserves its reputation as arguably India’s finest national park, and one of the best administered in Asia. The diversity of mammals is impressive. It is a good place to look for predators like Tiger, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Dhole (Indian Wild Dog) and Jungle Cat, as well as more unusual herbivores like the shy Gaur (Indian Boar), Four-horned Antelope (Chausingha), Barking Deer (Muntjac) and Barasingha (Swamp Deer). The bird list is equally impressive, with over 260 species – often seen are Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Scarlet Minivet and Red Junglefowl.
Spotted Deer
Days 6, 7, 8 & 9 : Bandhavgarh
After a final game drive in Kanha and lunch at our lodge we will depart by road for the 325 km (200 mile) drive to Bandhavgarh.
This compact Park covering 470 sq km (180 sq miles), holds a wide variety of both birds and mammals. There is still a healthy Tiger population and you have a fair chance of seeing this elusive big cat. There will be further game drives on Days 8 and 9, in the early morning and late afternoon, by open jeep and on riding elephant which will be escorted by trained naturalists.
Much of the Park is covered in sal forest, with mixed forest in the higher areas. There are also extensive areas of bamboo and grassland. The 250 plus bird species in the Park include Golden-fronted Leafbird, Brown Fish Owl and Malabar Pied Hornbill. The thirty mammal species include Sloth Bear, Leopard, Rhesus Macaque, Chital, Sambar, Wild Boar and Jungle Cat.
Day 9 : Bandhavgarh and transfer to Agra
We will have a further game drive in Bandhavgarh this morning before having lunch and taking a two hour drive in the afternoon to Katni where we will connect with the overnight sleeper train to Agra
Day 10: Agra and Chambal
The train is scheduled to arrive in Agra early in the morning and we transfer to an hotel to freshen up before heading off to arrive at the truly magnificent Taj Mahal in time to see the sunrise. After returning to the hotel for breakfast we will visit Agra Fort and then drive to the National Chambal Sanctuary for a three night stay. We will arrive in time for some evening birding around the lodge before dinner.
Rickshaws
Days 11 and 12 : National Chambal Sanctuary
We have two full days to explore this excellent location. The Sanctuary covers a 400km length of the Chambal River with a 1 to 6km wide swathe of land on either side. The Chambal Ravines, a maze of intertwining mud cliffs, are a major feature of the Sanctuary and their tropical dry scrub forest vegetation is home to numerous birds, mammals and reptiles. There are over 300 birds listed for the Sanctuary including species such as Indian Skimmer, Black-bellied Tern, Common Babbler, Rufous-fronted Prinia, Sand Lark, Bonelli’s Eagle, Red-crested Pochard, and Dalmation and Great White Pelicans. The river is also home to Gangetic River Dolphins, Marsh Crocodiles, eight species of Turtles and smooth coated Otters. Both days will begin with a morning boat ride on the Chambal River and Day 11 will also feature a visit to the Bateshwar Temples, a group of over a hundred temples dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. On Day 12 we will travel to the Sarus Crane Conservation Area which is about 30km from our lodge. This area of wetlands interspersed with cultivated fields is the location where large numbers of Sarus Cranes breed.
Day 13 : Fatephur Sikri
After breakfast at our lodge, we will travel to Fatephur Sikri, the fortified city which was the capital of the Mughal empire from 1571 to 1585. We will then take lunch and continue on to Delhi. Day rooms will be provided at an hotel and we will have a farewell dinner there before departing for the airport and our overnight flight back to the UK.
Day 14 :
We will arrive back in the UK early in the morning following our overnight flight.
Kanha Sunset