Why Nagzira Tiger Reserve?
If you have been to Tadoba you must have realized that its very crowded and commercialized. For every tiger sighting there are tens of gypsies around you. For those who prefer more rustic and laid back settings, Nagzira is the best option.
NNTR is a relatively new and rustic tiger reserve, established around 2013. It is the fifth tiger reserve in Maharashtra. It is situated in Gondia and Bhandara Districts in the North–Eastern corner of Maharashtra. As posted on their official website, NNTR is comprised of Nawegaon National Park, Nawegaon Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, New Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary and Koka Wildlife Sanctuary.
Map of Nagzira-Navegoan courtesy greenhumour.
The best aspect of visiting Nagzira is that you get an opportunity to stay in the core of the tiger reserve at the Nagzira Tiger Reserve Guest House. It comprises of standard rooms as part of the Holiday Homes structure and newer air cooled rooms under Lata Kunj and Madhu Kunj structure. The rooms are clean and there is a canteen facility available as well.
There have been times when the leopards have crossed from the guest house campus and are spotted by people. Our friends staying at the Lata Kunj rooms near the lake witnessed this first hand while coming for dinner, when they spotted pair of gleaming eyes in the dark and found them to belong to a leopard when seen under torch light 😀 The experience will remain with us for a lifetime!
In our 6 safaris at Nagzira we were lucky to spot 4 individual leapords and 1 sloth bear, apart from multiple packs of wild dogs and herds of bison. 😀 😀
Here are the details of safaris and our sightings.
We took a flight from Pune – Nagpur and drove to Pitezari gate by lunch time. We were to enter Nagzira Wildlife sanctuary from the Pitezari gate. The other gates are Chorkhamara and Murpar. We entered from the Pitezari gate at the start of safari a 3pm and then dropped our luggage and checked-in the forest reserve guest house and continued with our safari.
Day 1 : First glimpses of the wild and check-in to the Forest Guest House.
On our evening safari of our first day, we spotted many herbivores like spotted dear, sambar, bison and numerous langurs. As we roamed around the beautiful jungles of Nagzira time came to a standstill. There is no network connectivity inside the jungle so you get a chance to be one with nature.
The forest is dry and deciduous and the month of April provided sights of beautiful foliage and colorful leaves of kusum trees all over.
Day 2 Morning Safari : Encountered 2 packs of wild dogs and trailed them to the water hole
We witnessed a couple of packs of wild dogs, one particularly – trying to break the preys bone. We followed another pack of wild dogs as they reached the waterhole for a fill and were ousted by the herd of bison. One wild dog was brave enough to challenge them in order to hunt two little calves among the herd, but was ousted away. We heard stories from the guide about how these wild dogs at one point were so huge in numbers that they wiped-out most of the herbivorous population. Then later spilt and moved away in search of prey.
After breakfast we went on the lake behind the guest house, a very beautiful lake. Its a beautiful lake, serene and calm. Unfortunately there were a number of langurs enjoying their vistas and did not welcome us so we had to retreat.
Day 2 Evening Safari :
Evening safari was breathtaking as we saw a pair of leopards (male -female) resting at a waterhole. Its exciting to witness the whole process of tracking these carnivores from their pug marks and the distress calls around. Checking each water hole for activities and calls to finally watch them sit and have a fill. 🙂 Evening safaris are best time to spot leopards.
After dinner on the gorgeous full moon night we strolled along the lakeside and guest house campus, sharing stories and different encounters.
Day 3 Morning Safari :
Morning safari wecame to know from another gypsy of sighting sloth bears in the area. We then took the same course and spotted him on the hill eating. We patiently waited for him to be full as our guide informed that we would come to the water hole for a drink after that. We then trailed him as he descended from the hill, onto the road in front of us and then walked to the water hole. He had water at the the water hole and then we followed him up to the Sarovar view point up the hill after which he escaped down the hill. Ours was the only gypsy here and so we had full undisturbed views to our satisfaction.
Day 3 Evening Safari :
In the evening safari we had an adrenaline pumping encounter with a male leopard walking right next to our gypsy. We followed him to the waterhole. Later after a few minutes, at the same spot, there was another female leopard but we only had a few glimpses of her.
Day 4 Morning Safari :
Early morning safari was a dud, and the jungle was uncharacteristically silent and lifeless. After safari we bid adieu to the Forest guest house and moved to Pitezari gate for lunch.
Day 4 before departure:
Post lunch we visited the house of Mr Subhash who was our guide and learnt a lot about their lifestyle and co-existence with animals. We visited their farm where they cultivated rice.
It was heart breaking to learn about the hardships of the villagers. As the area is not much developed for tourism the sources of livelihood are limited. With great efforts people cultivated rice and collected and processed Mahua flowers to be sold. Leopards are regular visitors in the village, specially during summer and people have to take turns and guard the farms from the grazing herbivores too. Even with the hardships the people here have great spirits and gratitude and are happy to coexist with the animals.
As the tourist footfall will increase in NNTR hopefully the infrastructure would improve. Even in the current state for a raw first hand experience we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and safaris at Nagzira Tiger Reserve.
We had booked our Safaris with Footloose Journeys. You can contact them here:
https://footloosejourneys.com/
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Contact No:
+91 97658 98733
Email id : explore@footloosejourneys.in
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