Month: July 2019

Wildlife Tour Operator for the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh is blessed with abundant flora & fauna. Each year, scores of tourists visit Madhya Pradesh to relish the exotic wildlife that the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh hosts. The recent NTCA Tiger Census ‘2018 lauded Madhya Pradesh on the effective conservation of it’s Tigers. As per NTCA, the top 4 National Parks in … Continue reading “Wildlife Tour Operator for the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh”

Madhya Pradesh is blessed with abundant flora & fauna.

Each year, scores of tourists visit Madhya Pradesh to relish the exotic wildlife that the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh hosts.

The recent NTCA Tiger Census ‘2018 lauded Madhya Pradesh on the effective conservation of it’s Tigers.

As per NTCA, the top 4 National Parks in terms of Management Effective Evaluation are :

Pench Tiger Reserve : 93.75%

Periyar Tiger Reserve : 93.75%

Kanha Tiger Reserve : 92.97%

Satpura Tiger Reserve : 90.63%

Madhya Pradesh, with 3 Tiger Reserves in the slot and being proclaimed the “Tiger State” with 526 tigers, Madhya Pradesh is indeed a desirable destination for wildlife enthusiasts.

The best places to see tigers in the wild in Madhya Pradesh are :

Kanha National Park :

Kanha National Park is  the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh & a feast for the eyes for wildlife enthusiasts.

An epitome of conservation,successful rehabilitation of the Hard ground Swamp Deer ( Barasingha ) speaks about the dedication & efforts of the forest dept as well as the local population.

It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, “Bhoorsingh the Barasingha”.

Bandhavgarh National Park

Bandhavgarh is a place of mythological and legendary significance. The ancient Bandhavgarh Fort is of great importance as it is believed to have been gifted by Lord Rama to his younger brother Lakshmana. ‘Bandhav’ in English means brother and ‘Garh’ means fort. Hence the name, Bandhavgarh. Bandhavgarh dates back to 2000 years ago and you will find several man made caves with inscriptions and rock paintings.

Bandhavgarh is also the land of tigers. This is the place to visit if you want to spot the big cat. India’s top dwelling for tigers, Bandhavgarh National Park has the highest density of Royal Bengal tigers in the world. The sight of the majestic tiger, up close and personal, is said to trigger a sense of awe in you, of the kinds you would have only experienced in your childhood.

Pench National Park

Pench National Park derives its name from the Pench River that flows through the park.

In 2011, the park won the “Best Management Award”.

Pench National Park has been immortalized with it’s description  in Ain-i-Akbari, and is the setting of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

Satpura National Park

Madhai is located at the entrance of the most exquisite and beautiful forests in India – Satpura. Few places in the world can compete with its raw wilderness, absolute tranquillity and the air of mystique. It delights you with its rich wildlife, sprawling meadows, unending backwaters and spell-binding views that leave you awestruck and get you to be completely in sync with the magic of nature.

Panna National Park

Mines shining with diamonds within a national park that’s home to some of the biggest predators and waterfalls of dizzying heights; Panna has the amazing superpower to, both, calm you and thrill you!

The city’s royal past dates back to mid of 17th Centuary AD, when it became the capital of Maharaja Chhatrasal’s kingdom. On the other hand, with Ken River passing through Panna hills, the city has a wildlife-friendly present. You can spot the majestic tiger, the ghariyal – a huge reptile found only in the Indian subcontinent, and a variety of flora and fauna.

A visit to Panna will surely bring alive the child-like awe in you.

I4u Travel Services is based at Jabalpur, considered to the gateway for the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh.

Visit www.i4utravels.com for more information on Madhya Pradesh Tourism or contact us.

The Best Place to see Tigers in India : Madhya Pradesh

As the compiled report of “Status of Tigers Co – predators & Prey in India, 2018” is released today ( 29th July ‘2019 ) by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi on the occasion of International Tiger Day, Madhya Pradesh rejoices on once again being crowned the “Tiger State” of India. India has a long-standing and … Continue reading “The Best Place to see Tigers in India : Madhya Pradesh”

As the compiled report of “Status of Tigers Co – predators & Prey in India, 2018” is released today ( 29th July ‘2019 ) by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi on the occasion of International Tiger Day, Madhya Pradesh rejoices on once again being crowned the “Tiger State” of India.

India has a long-standing and successful track record of protecting its tigers. Tiger conservation is the collective responsibility of the government and the people. Our cultural legacy which encourages compassion” distance has played a important role in the conservation of tigers.

India is home to 60% of the Global tiger population which is reflective of our conservation initiatives which are totally grounded in science and suitably backed by a legal and financial framework. The fourth cycle of the all India tiger estimation has been successfully completed and shows a rise in tiger estimates.

 In the era of modern development, conserving the tiger is the only real task. Ensuring the conservation of this topic only for guarantees the well-being of our forest article systems, the biodiversity their present in the water than climate security they provide. Monitoring the status of tigers, along with associated biodiversity of the encompassing system, is important to assess our success at meeting the commitment of conserving our natural heritage.

India’s national tiger assessment is the largest biodiversity survey being carried out anywhere in the world. The food cycle of the suspect was undertaken in 2018 and 2019 using the best available science, technology and another pickle tunes. In the cycle, recording of primary field data through mobile phone applications like M-STRIPES ( Monitoring system for Tigers – intensive protection and ecologically status ) that uses GPS to geo tag photo evidences, and survey information made this exercise more accurate, with smaller margins of human error. Further, it involves the development of innovative technology like automated segregation of camera trap photographs to species using artificial intelligence and neural network models.

That fingerprints tigers from their stripe patterns was used to count the number of individual tigers the unique feature of this cycle of assessment, in keeping up with digital India, is the development and use of innovative technology technological tools in collection and processing of data to reduce human errors.

The fourth cycle of National tiger status assessment of 2018-19 is the most accurate survey 2 conducted. The survey covered 381,400 km of forested habitats in 20 tiger occupied states of India. A foot survey of 522,996 km was done for carnivore signs and prey abundance estimation. In these forests, 317,958 habitat plots were sampled for vegetation, human impacts and prey dung.  Camera traps were deployed at 26,838 locations. These cameras resulted in 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife of which 76,651 were of tigers and 51,777 were of leopards. The total area 2sampled by camera traps was 121,337 km . The total effort invested in the survey was 593,882 man-days. We believe that this is the world’s largest effort invested in any wildlife survey till date,  on all of the above criteria. A total of 2,461 individual tigers (>1 year of age) were photo-captured. The overall tiger population in India was estimated at 2,967. Out of this, 83% were actually camera trapped individual tigers and 87% were accounted for by camera trap based capture-mark-recapture and remaining 13% estimated through covariate based models. Tigers were observed to be increasing at a rate of 6% per annum in India when consistently sampled areas were compared from 2006 to 2018 . Tiger occupancy was found to be stable at 88,985 km the country scale since 2014 (88,558 km ). Though there were losses and gains at individual landscapes and state scales. The occupancy reported in this report is based on latest forest cover by Forest Survey of India (2017) and therefore cannot be compared with earlier occupied areas which were computed from earlier forest cover data. To make the comparison on the same scale we have recomputed tiger occupied forests for the 2014 cycle on the forest cover of 2017. Reduction in occupied areas was due to a) not finding evidence of tiger presence in sampled forests (20% actual loss), and b) not sampling forests that had tiger presence in 2014 (8 %).  New areas that were colonized by tigers in 2018 constituted 25,709 2(28%) km . This analysis suggests that loss and gain of tiger occupancy was mostly from habitat pockets that support low density populations. Such habitats with low density tigers, though contributing minimally to overall tiger numbers, are crucial links for gene flow and maintaining connectivity between source populations. The loss and gain of tiger occupancy in these marginal areas is a dynamic process and depends on several factors like proximity of a tiger source population, anthropocentric pressures operating in the landscape, associated change in habitat conditions and protection regime. Tiger occupancy has increased in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. Loss in North East is due to poor sampling. Madhya Pradesh has also registered a substantial increase in their tiger population and along with Karnataka ranks highest in tiger numbers. The poor and continuing decline in tiger status in the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha is a matter of concern.

Blue Print of the 2018 Census

2,967 : Total tiger population estimated in India

2,461 : Total number of individual tigers camera trapped

2,591 : Tiger population estimated through Capture-mark-recapture

Tiger Population in India

2006 : 1,411

2010 : 1,706

2014 : 2,226

2018 : 2,967

State Wise Tiger Population

                                    2006    2010      2014      2018

Madhya Pradesh     300    257     308      526

Karnataka                      290         300        406        524

Uttarakhand                    178         227         340        442

Tamilnadu                         76          163          229         264

Maharashtra                   103        168         190          312

Rajasthan                          32          36           45          69         

Madhya Pradesh records an exemplary growth of 70% vis-a-vie last census of 2014.

The Best National Parks of Madhya Pradesh as per descending Tiger population :

  • Kanha National Park
  • Bandhavgarh National Park
  • Pench National Park
  • Panna National Park
  • Satpura National Park
  • Sanjay Dubri National Park

The Best Place to see Tigers in India : Madhya Pradesh

Madhay Pradesh : The Numero Uno state for Wildlife Tourism in India Finally, good news rolling out of the forests of Madhya Pradesh. As per the latest reports of Wildlife Institute of India ( WII, Dehradun ), The number of tigers in Madhya Pradesh might increase from the existing 308 (as per 2014 census by … Continue reading “The Best Place to see Tigers in India : Madhya Pradesh”

Madhay Pradesh : The Numero Uno state for Wildlife Tourism in India

Finally, good news rolling out of the forests of Madhya Pradesh. As per the latest reports of Wildlife Institute of India ( WII, Dehradun ), The number of tigers in Madhya Pradesh might increase from the existing 308 (as per 2014 census by NTCA ) to 415. This report is an amalgamation of camera trappings, pugmarks & scientific reports.

It is speculated that WII might release the report in the coming fortnight.

NTCA ( National tiger Conservation Authority ) has conducted a state wise counting of tigers in Madhya Pradesh from Dec ‘2017 to April ‘2018 in the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and unreserved forests of Madhya Pradesh. This counting, done every four years was conducted last in 2014 and had reported 308 tigers n Madhya Pradesh. Authorities closely associated with this are extremely optimistic of a final figure crossing 415 tigers in Madhya Pradesh.

The analysis of the “Tiger Census 2018” concludes significant increase in the number of resident tigers in the unreserved forests too. Even the territorial areas of the tigers has enhanced in the Jabalpur forest circle.

The State Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur has forwarded all the primary survey and trap camera records to National Tiger Conservation Authorities & Wildlife Institute of India. They will be processing the same and analysis of a PAN India state wise records will be submitted finally.

Around 4,600 trap cameras and forest department employees were used for this tiger count.

The year 2014 recorded tiger presence in 717 beats of Madhya Pradesh. The current consus projects tiger presence in 1432 beats. In 2014, Kanha National park recorded tiger presence in 155 beats of 11 11 ranges. The current census shows a positive tiger presence in 188 beats in 13 ranges.

Currently, Kanha National Park has 83 tigers and Bandhavgarh National Park has 61 tigers.

Similarly, in Jabalpur circle, the presence of tigers has enhanced from 28 to 62 beats.

The tiger census of 2014 declared Karnataka having a count of 408 tigers, Uttarakhand with 340 & Madhya Pradesh ranked No 3 with 308 tigers.

Year Wise Tiger Census of  Madhya Pradesh

2006 – 300 tigers

2010 – 257 tigers

2014 – 308 tigers

Madhya Pradesh had received the “Tiger State” award in 1991 when the total count of tigers were said to be 900, which included the state of Chattisgarh too.

Madhya Pradesh lost this coveted title to Karnataka in 2010.

The government of Madhya Pradesh is planning to declare newer National Parks and Wildlife sanctuaries to protect the species. Omkareshwar National Park, Mandhata, Singhaji and Ratapani wildlife Sanctuaries has already been shortlisted.

Visit the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh this monsoon

Kanha National Park Kanha National Park is  the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh & a feast for the eyes for wildlife enthusiasts. An epitome of conservation,successful rehabilitation of the Hard ground Swamp Deer ( Barasingha ) speaks about the dedication & efforts of the forest dept as well as the local population. It is … Continue reading “Visit the National Parks of Madhya Pradesh this monsoon”

Kanha National Park

Kanha National Park is  the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh & a feast for the eyes for wildlife enthusiasts.

An epitome of conservation,successful rehabilitation of the Hard ground Swamp Deer ( Barasingha ) speaks about the dedication & efforts of the forest dept as well as the local population.

It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, “Bhoorsingh the Barasingha”.

The buffers of Kanha National Park (Khatia,Khapa,Sijhora & Phen ) are open for tourists this monsoon.

The following activities can also be planned if visiting Kanha National Park in the monsoon.

  • Jungle Safari in the buffer zone
  • Trip to Gidli Gubra Waterfall : is around 20 kms from Mocha & is located amidst pristine dense forest. Tigers have been regularly spotted nearby by tourists.
  • Sunset Point, Rata : The sunset point is at a higher elevation & offers spectacular view of the Kanha landscape.
  • Ajgar Dadar : A primary habitat of Indian Rock Python
  • Ramnagar Fort : The Ramnagar Fort / Mandla Fort was built in the late 17th century by the Gond Kings. It is constructed in a loop of the Narmada River. The main feature of this fort is its three- storey strategic construction. It was built on the banks of the Narmada river so that the river forms its defense from three sides. This fort is also known as Moti Mahal situated 24 km from Mandla city. Another fort, Begum Mahal is situated 3 km away from Moti Mahal is known for its three storyed rectangular masterpiece of mugal architecture which was built for Chimney Rani. The marvellous black stones used to build Begum Mahal were taken from another spot of attraction, “Kala Pahad” situated 4 km from it.
  • Kala Pahar : is a secluded tourist place and surrounded by lush green forest, a mountain of black & brown symmetrical rocks and is one of a kind in India.
  • This is a hill on top of which you have black stones which are natural but they look like someone has cut them into pieces with sawing machines. There is an inscription in the bottom of the hills that only in Ireland these type of natural stones have been found in the world.
  • A great place to go. You can go half way by vehicle and then climb. The saving grace is that you can not see how much you have to climb when you start the climb. An ancient Shiva temple lies at the top of the hill.

Bandhavgarh National Park

Bandhavgarh is a place of mythological and legendary significance. The ancient Bandhavgarh Fort is of great importance as it is believed to have been gifted by Lord Rama to his younger brother Lakshmana. ‘Bandhav’ in English means brother and ‘Garh’ means fort. Hence the name, Bandhavgarh. Bandhavgarh dates back to 2000 years ago and you will find several man made caves with inscriptions and rock paintings.

Bandhavgarh is also the land of tigers. This is the place to visit if you want to spot the big cat. India’s top dwelling for tigers, Bandhavgarh National Park has the highest density of Royal Bengal tigers in the world. The sight of the majestic tiger, up close and personal, is said to trigger a sense of awe in you, of the kinds you would have only experienced in your childhood.

The buffers of Bandhavgarh National Park (Dhamokhar, Johila & Panpatha ) are open for tourists this monsoon.

A local village tour can also be organized.

In the evening, a traditional Baiga Tribal Dance can be planned for the entertainment of the guests.

Pench National Park

Pench National Park derives its name from the Pench River that flows through the park.

In 2011, the park won the “Best Management Award”.

Pench National Park has been immortalized with it’s description  in Ain-i-Akbari, and is the setting of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

The buffers of Pench National Park are open for tourists this monsoon.

A local village tour can also be organized.

The forest department of Pench National Park is organizing a three day monsoon trekking and camping (13th – 15th August, 2017) in the fine forests of Rukhad and Sakata Buffer of Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh.

Satpura National Park

Madhai is located at the entrance of the most exquisite and beautiful forests in India – Satpura. Few places in the world can compete with its raw wilderness, absolute tranquillity and the air of mystique. It delights you with its rich wildlife, sprawling meadows, unending backwaters and spell-binding views that leave you awestruck and get you to be completely in sync with the magic of nature.

The buffers of Satpura National Park ( Jamanidev & Parsapani ) are open for tourists this monsoon.

A wonderful way to explore the place is on bicycles which can be provided.