Nature's Symphony :     A Memorable Safari at Satpura Tiger Reserve

I live in Madhya Pradesh which is situated in Central India and here are 7 tiger reserves scattered all over the state and we have the largest number of tigers in the India as a state, due to this reason our state is often called “The Tiger State” of India. Me and my friend were thinking about going somewhere to have fun and I made a suggestion to visit the Satpura Tiger Reserve, we booked our permit from the forest department at ₹400/each for the morning safari. The safari was going to start from 5:30 AM and we thought as there is no public transportation available at that time so either we can go one day earlier or we can go on bike at morning as the forest is 97 KM away so we can reach in two hours. We decided on the latter and at around 3:50 AM we departed from my home.

As we approached the Tiger Reserve the buffer area of jungle started. Here, we got to see The Indian Giant Squirrel and an Eagle. We tried our best to reach at time but missed by 25 minutes, the officer said that the safari that we have booked is already left so here also we had two choices either we can go home or we can book the whole vehicle and as same we decided on the latter. We booked the whole vehicle for ₹5310. If we had reached on time, we could have got a seat for ₹1000/each but here we had to pay 2600/each but we had to have whole jeep to ourself and also had the authority to where to stop and where to go and also had to have a personal guide.

Pic 2 - As the safari starts..

We started our journey on boat as there is large lake that we had to cross and on the other end the safari was going to start, we boarded on the jeep and here we go, as we entered the jungle, I heard this melodious music that was being played by birds and animals, and just after entering the jungle we found different types of butterflies. we spotted the herd of spotted deer with two peacocks walking with them and after seeing this I was mesmerized, after this we saw a crocodile sunbathing on the bank of a lake and then just after going little ahead like 5 minutes after we have seen the deer we got see The Tiger with a Tigress, we stopped our jeep, there were two more jeeps who were observing this sight and after some time they started mating. The guide told us that it’s a very rare sight but they stopped after everyone was making noise out of excitement. After this we saw a many two or three herds of bison. After this we saw a very beautiful sight of lake and grassland with mountains on background. I felt like I have arrived inside the National Geographic.

Pic 3 - Me birdwatching

After this we stopped for 15 minutes at a ranger’s site for a break as one and a half hours have passed. There was a small river flowing and there were so many fishes present at this river. After taking a break we saw a snake that was killed by group of wild ants and it was amazing to see how these small ants can kill a snake. After this the guide told the driver to stop as he was hearing some call signs that animals use to warn other animals about a predator. The guide told us that this could be a leopard, we tried very hard but we could not find it. After some more time in jungle our safari ended and we again boarded a boat to cross the lake.

Pic 4 - Peacock with a herd of deer

Overall, this was turned out to be very good trip. I enjoyed it as I have this deep love for jungles and their beauty.

Written by Saharsh· Images by Saharsh