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Jungle Safari
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To
explore the wilds of the
Himalayas jungle safari
is the best option. It will give you
a chance to come close to nature. Jungle
safari can be of different types like
riding on an elephant's back or traveling
on a jeep. Jungle safari is exploring
the forest trough a jeep instead of
trekking, hiking and walking. It is
a very different experience, which is
really difficult to express in words. |
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| You
should go there to experience it yourself. The
jungle safari tours involve not just exploring
the jungles of any particular region but it
also involves various wildlife sanctuaries and
national parks and even protective reserves.
If you want you can also opt for wildlife camping
and nature walks along with your jungle safari.
The safari tour also includes lodging, which
are provided by various forest departments within
the sanctuary area and national parks. It gives
you a chance to walk around the jungle and just
relax and feel the wildness. The best time to
go for a jungle safari is between April to June
and September to November. |
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Corbett National Park
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| Nestling
in the foothills of the Himalayas,
Corbett National Park
has extremely varied topography
and vegetation. This gives it a rich
diversity of habitat and natural beauty.
Flat valleys are interspersed with hilly
ridges and the Park's rolling grasslands
known as the 'Chaurs' provide visitors
with an excellent view of the animals. |
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park was established in 1936 as the
Hailey National Park
, following the advice
of the hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett.
The park covered 520 sq. kilometres
in 1986, and a proposed extension of
588 sq. kilometres is under consideration. |
| The
protective environment of Corbett Park
has kept some endangered species of
the world hit list have been safe and
thriving, like the hog deer which has
been virtually saved from extinction. |
| Project
Tiger, which was set up with the help
of the World Wildlife Fund, was launched
at Dhikala, in the
Corbett National Park
on April 1, 1973. This
project was aimed at saving the Indian
Tiger (Panthera Tigris) from extinction. |
| At
last count, the numbers had increased
substantially. Apart from Tigers (90
in number in 1984), leopards as well
as lesser cats such as the leopard cat,
jungle cat, and fishing cat are also
found here. The sloth bear, Himalayan
black bear, dhole, jackal, yellow throated
marten, Himalayan palm civet, Indian
grey mongoose, common otter, porcupine,
black naped hare are the other attractions
of this area. It is possible to see
elephants all over the park. Corbett
is also the only home of the rare Indian
pagolin. Consider yourself supremely
blessed if you spot one! |
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Suggested Tours
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The Great
Himalayan National
Park
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| Hemmed
in on three sides by the towering peaks
of the Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh's
Great
Himalayan
National Park
is undoubtedly the place to go for a
rendezvous with the wildlife of these
mountains. Here, amidst dense forests
of blue pine and cedar, in high alpine
meadows and mountain slopes which remain
covered with snow throughout the year,
lives one of the densest and most impressive
populations of Himalayan wildlife. |
| Created
in 1984, the
Great Himalayan National Park
(officially known as the
Jawaharlal
Nehru
Great
Himalayan
National Park
) includes, in a wide swathe
of land covering 765 sq km, the previously-established
Tirthan Sanctuary. |
| Adjacent
to the park are two more important protected
areas- the Pin Valley National Park
and the Rupi Bhabha Sanctuary- a vast
expanse of land sheltering many of the
species, both animal and plant, endemic
to the Himalayas. The Great
Himalayan
National Park
lies in Seraj Forest Division (in Kullu
District), in the upper catchment areas
of the Jiwa, Saint and Tertian rivers.
A park where the altitude varies from
1,500 Mt to about 6,000 Mt, encompassing
within it snowcapped mountains, river
valleys, and steep cliffs. The diversity
of terrain and altitude is reflected
in a corresponding diversity of vegetation.
Deciduous broad-leaved forests of oak
and bamboo alternate with pine and deodar
woods, while grasses and colourful wildflowers
crowd alpine meadows in the upper reaches. |
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Rajaji National Park
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| Rajaji
National Park, spread in an area of
about 820 Sq. Kms. , is one of the latest
addition to the list of National Parks
in the country. The Park was constituted
combining three existing wildlife sanctuaries,
Rajaji, Motichur, and Chilla.
Nested in the Shiwalik Hills, &
lying between the Lower Himalayas and
the Upper Gangetic Plains, it is the
northwestern most habitat of the Asian
Elephant. In addition, the park
is home to Tiger, Leopard, Porcupine,
Barking Deer and Sambhar. The
largest variety of Indian Python is
also found in Rajaji. |
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Suggested
Tours
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Namdapha National Park
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| It
is now a legally protected area having
been designated in 1983 as the
Namdapha
National Park under Wildlife (Protection)
Act. The same year, it was also declared
as a Tiger Reserve under project tiger.
With a total area of 1,985-sq-kms, this
is the largest national park in the
Northeast and one of the larger protected
areas in the country. The farthest part
of
India
in the northeast is named after the
rising sun. Rightly so, because it is
here every morning that the first rays
of sunlight strike the Indian subcontinent
heralding a new dawn of activity and
expectations. The state of Arunachal
Pradesh is endowed with natural and
cultural attributes, which make it verily
a fantasyland. Here, forests and wilderness
predominate in exuberance, extent, density
and diversity, which is indeed rare
and unique. |
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| While
the whole setting is fabulous, one area
stands out far above the rest on account
of its natural beauty and supreme wilderness.
This is the area at the extreme end
of Changland district In Arunachal Pradesh,
bordering Myanmar ( Burma
) on two sides and watered by the Noa-Dehing
and Namdapha Rivers
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| Certain
aspects of Namdapha makes it stand out
from the rest of park. The first is
the altitude, which varies around 200
metres (nearly sea level) in the valleys
to more than 4,500 metres with snow
covered mountain peaks. Perhaps no other
national park in the world can boast
of such phenomenal altitudinal variation.
As a result, the climate conditions
inside the area are favorable for different
species. |
| Though
located at 27 degrees north of the equator
and hence being in the sub-tropical
zone having a tropical climate, the
higher parts of the reserve, which are
mountainous and rugged experience cold
temperate round the year. Similarly,
rainfall is very variable - excessive
in the tropical part and scanty in the
higher reaches. |
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The Royal Chitwan Park
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| Established
in 1973, this is the oldest designated
nationals park in Nepal
and a chief safari destination. This
park is situated merely 150 kilometers
south-west in inner Terai, the nearest
one from Kathmandu
. It was designated as a World Heritage
Site in 1984. Chitwan lies in the lowlands
or Inner Terai of southern central Nepal on the international border with India . The
park's boundaries extend from the Dauney
Hills on the west bank of the Narayani River eastward 78km to Hasta and Dhoram
rivers. The park is bounded to the north
by the Narayani and Rapti rivers and
to the south by the Panchnad and Reu
rivers and a forest road. 27°20-27°40'N,
83°52'-84°45'E |
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| Parsa
Wildlife Reserve is contiguous to the
eastern boundary of the park and extends
as far eastwards as the Bheraha and
Bagali rivers. 27°15'-27°35'N, 84°45'-84°58'E |
| Chitwan
was enlarged from 54,400ha to its present
size of 93,200ha in 1977. Parsa Wildlife
Reserve covers 49,900ha. There was a
proposal to further enlarge the protected
areas complex by establishing the 25,900ha
Bara Hunting Reserve (Wegge, 1976; Smith
and Mishra, 1981), adjacent to and east
of Parsa Wildlife Reserve, but this
has been dropped (B.N. Upreti, pers.
comm., 1986). |
| Chitwan
is situated in a river valley basin
or dun, along the flood plains of the
Rapti, Reu and Narayani rivers. The
Someswar and the Dauney hills form thesouthern
catchment and both drain into the Narayani.
The Churia Hills bisect the park, their
northern face falling within the catchment
of the Rapti and southern side forming
the catchment of the Reu. The Rapti
is bounded by the
Mahabharat
Range on the north. Both the Rapti and
Reu flow westwards and drain into the
Narayani, which meanders southwards
for about 25km through a narrow gorge
between the Someswar and Dauney hills
until it reaches the Nepal-India border. |
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Jungle
Safari in Himalaya Reservation Form
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