Tigers, a Leopard and Beautiful Birds!
I love India – the people, the food, colors, history, the organized chaos and yes, the wildlife! I’m always happy to be back on tiger safari as these majestic beasts are breathtaking to see in the forests. Sometimes, they’re challenging to see and photograph in the tall grass and bamboo. Other times they’re walking in plain sight and in the hot months, you might find them in the water bodies, as the locals call them. One of my favorite things about tiger safaris and the naturalists we use is they know the names of the tigers and often their parentage. It’s fun to see the same tigers year after year and see their cubs grow up! Tigers aren’t named until they’re about 2+ years old and ready to leave mom. At 15-16 months old, cubs look like full grown tigers to me so I’m always surprised to hear the naturalists say they’re still cubs.
On our fam trips, we go to the 4 best tiger parks – Tadoba NP, Pench NP, Kanha NP and Bandhavgarh NP to give travel advisors an idea of logistics and which national parks they like best to book for their guests. Our tally this year was 33 total tiger sightings with 27 of them unique and that did include mating tigers, which I seem to see every year. Yep, they do it just like lions!
Tadoba always has good tiger sightings although it’s not the most beautiful park. Three different wild dog packs and the 11 tigers made our game drives special. We stay at Waghoba Eco Lodge with its unique design, good food, gracious service and excellent naturalists. We saw Colarwali and 3 of her cubs, all of whom look like full-grown tigers.
Next on to Pench with its teak forests, hilly terrain and the Pench river. Last year, we had the most amazing sighting with mom, Kala Pahad and her 3 cubs at a water body. Sadly only one of them, her sub-adult male, is still alive as a new male killed the other two cubs – nature can be brutal. As last year, we did get to see a leopard crossing the road and jump onto a tree branch. While the photos weren’t good, we did see Bathder, lounging in the grass and her two cubs, jumping around. Her story is incredible as she is 14 years old, has had 6 litters and a total of 22 cubs. Poor girl is exhausted! We stay at Pench Tree Lodge where they have cool tree houses and cottages. It’s always nice to have a delicious dinner in their organic garden.
Onwards to Kanha with its sal and bamboo forests and hilly terrain. On our first game drive we saw MV3 rolling around on the sandy road, totally unbothered by the vehicles watching her. Later there was a throuple arrangement over 2 days here. We saw MV Male, MV3’s son from her 1st litter on his back in the same spot all day. The next day we saw him again, same spot. Then we saw another male, DD, and the female, Ghangar, cross the road together and later that day we saw MV Male and Ghangar mating and then saw DD soaking in a close-by water body. Kanha is famous for its revival of swamp deer which were nearly extinct. We saw quite a few along with the beautiful black buck. Kanha Earth Lodge was our home for several nights where we enjoyed amazingly delicious food cooked with love by one of my favorite chefs, Ark. The cottages are spacious, comfortable with gracious service and KEL has excellent naturalists.
Our last stop was Bandhavgarh with sal and bamboo trees, hills and streams. Here I was thrilled to see Ra again with her 4 sub-adult cubs as last year they were quite small. More tiger sightings, beautiful birds rounded out our game drives. Wild elephants are in this park but we didn’t see any this year. The Pugdundee property here is Kings Lodge where we stayed and they have a small tree house property also.
While I am a “big cat” person, there are other amazing wildlife to see while on tiger safari. I love the langur monkeys as they are playful and quite photogenic.
Lots of deer and other antelope are in the jungle – Barasingha or swamp deer, Sambar deer (with spotted deer), blackbuck and the blue bull with their small heads are exciting to see!
Birding this year was especially spectacular with quite a few new species – yellow footed green pideon, albino spotted dove, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher,along with my favorite, the Indian Paradise Flycatcher.
Sadly it’s true that all the national parks have banned mobile phones. Sometimes it’s better to photograph scenery, sunsets and walking tigers with your mobile phones but those are the new rules.
We stay at the Pugdundee Safaris’ camps as they are charming with lovely service, great food, organic gardens, and excellent naturalists who know everything about tigers and are fun! (in order – Tadoba, Pench, Kanha, Bandhavgarh)
Royal Expeditions was founded by the Princess of Jodhpur, former Parliament member and Minister of Culture. Partner and managing director, Vishal Singh helped found TOFTigers and is the India Director. The team at Royal Expeditions always goes the extra mile to ensure every aspect of your trip to India is amazing.
kiki / april, 2026