When it comes to seeing and photographing Tiger in its natural environments, India surely tops the list of the best destinations to fulfil your dream. This biggest of all big cats, once superabundant in ice-free Pleistocene Asia up to the Arctic circle was pushed Southwards due to cold climatic spell to rule the roost in its current range of small island habitats of human induced fragmented forest in South, East and South East Asia, where it can still be encountered on foot and from safari vehicles with thrilling experience.
Tiger’s Radiation into Peninsular India through the eastern end of Himalayas, to a land of promise and potential for its long-term survival to multiply and thrive till date despite historical turmoil, brimming human population, rapid urbanisation, much needed industrial and agricultural revolution that continue inexorably till date and contrasting melange of biodiversity.
On entering to its new found land India, the itinerant alien biggest cat travelled westward up to present day’s Gujarat, where its advancement must have been checkmated in the forest which was Asiatic Lion’s realm. It continued to colonize much of the land till hitting Cape-Comorin in the Southern end of India. The Tiger is an animal of a catholic choice in terms of habitat selection it roams in India. Hence, it cannot be an ordinary creature but a charismatic one.
Evolutionary hypothesis of Palaeontologists, geologists, taxonomists, geneticist and biogeographers have significantly advanced the ken of our knowledge and understanding as to how the Tiger evolved and spread through Asia. The subject is capable of consuming many pages to form a dragging tome if we attempt to get into the nicety of it here. But we can have your thoughts crystalized if you join us on safaris to the Tiger reserves in India. We promise this to be a wonderful and interesting storytelling session around bone fire while you sip cocktail or mocktail that you may fancy
The reverence and appeal for tiger is deep-rooted in Asia from snowy Russian far East to steamy jungle of Java up to the Sun-baked landscapes of India. Tiger continues to find respect across the region and cultures, where it is represented on various artifacts and literatures. It has been worshiped as a God in traditional tribe to animistic cultures and in Indic faiths.
Although, during turbulent period of medieval India, the fascination and reverence tiger enjoyed got compromised with mingling of alien civilisations. The abundance and quality of wildlife became hunting pastime of Royal nobles and British colonial officers that sadly continues till late 1960s when the ban on any sort of hunting was mulled and implemented officially with Wildlife Protection Acts 1972 followed by the launch of Project Tiger 1973 in India. Soon the other countries also joined the bandwagon.
The fascination for Tiger is contagious; hence, it has been attracting explorers, researchers, Photographers and wildlife enthusiasts from across the globe to see, photograph or study Tiger’s secret world in Indian jungle that is most promising to fulfil a visitor’s dreams
Although, its historic range straddled across 30 countries has drastically restricted as consequences of human impacts to mere 13 or 12 countries with some of them having bleak prospect of its long-term survival except India and a bunch of more countries India’s cultural legacy and long-term track record has proved the prediction wrong that was made in 1993 on tiger’s survival in the wild and extinction by 2000.
India is not only brimming with its human population but also cradles close to nine hundred protected areas. Tiger Reserves, National Parks, Wild life Sanctuaries, Biosphere reserves, Community Reserves and Conservation Reserves have been providing safe heaven to six out of seven big cats of the world in its forest.
India’s evolving democracy has achieved many set targets in last 70 odd years and continue to march with top gear on many developmental trajectories. One such important targets, to double tiger numbers across its range by tiger nations by year 2022, that was set at global tiger symposium in Saint Peterburg 2010, when our tiger numbers were little over 1400. With well rooted wildlife conservation mechanism backed by advance scientific inputs for park managers to strategize long run conservation plan, we have managed to achieve this target well before time and more than doubled our tiger numbers to 3167 in 2023 from 1400 in 2010.
Royal Bengal Tiger wanders the length and breadth of India, is the most numerous, widespread and promising sub-species to see due to its vicinity to humans that leads to its display of comfort to human presence and tourist jeeps. Hence, it does not shy to venture out of woods during the day on rutted forest roads and trails to put-up show with its royal gait.
India’s well-ingrained system in place for conservation with eco-tourism creates a delightful ambience and opportunity for a traveller to explore tiger’s backyard from four wheel off-roader open jeeps, boat and canoe driven by passionate bunch of skilled drives cum cognoscenti of forest.
We are here to guide you to choose most suitable tiger reserves, based on your preference, travel duration and target species. Do write us with your travel plan and we will curate an itinerary to meet your choice till you are fully satisfied.
India being the most preferred destination for tiger safari tours, hence, plan well in advance and reach out to us to secure safari permits from online portals for the most productive zones with abundance of wildlife and frequent Tiger sightings
Tiger is an umbrella species of most parks but there is a laundry list of cheeky, sneaky, mousy and noisy neighbours that the tiger share forest with to prey upon. Expect a forest to go bonkers with bio-orchestra when a big cat is sensed by its noisy neighbours.
Do not forget to equip yourself with a good pair of binoculars and a DSLR camera probably to capture the moment of a lifetime.
Big swing in temperature from day break to late morning and afternoon is going to bust a prevailing myth about India that it is warm country. Hence, drape yourself with forest matching apparel to bear the elements of outdoor trip. Do consult us about the sartorial appropriateness at the time of enquiring your safari trip.
