India Tigers and the Taj Mahal Tour, Rajasthan - 10 Days

Arrive in Delhi with the remainder of the day birding locally or at leisure. Night in a comfortable city hotel.

Bandhavgarh, Take an early morning domestic flight to Jabalpur, from where we transfer by road to Bandhavgarh National Park (3hrs), birding en-route in roadside fields and scrub where species such as Laughing and Spotted Doves, Long-tailed Shrike, Green Bee-eater, Red and Yellow-wattled Lapwings, Common and Jungle Mynas, Black Kite and Egyptian Vulture can be found. Spend the afternoon and following day exploring Bandhavgarh and its dry deciduous forests. Our excursions into the park will be on morning and afternoon game drives in open jeeps, from sunrise to mid-morning, and again from mid-afternoon until dusk, with midday periods free to relax or for birdwatching walks around our lodge. Alongside Tiger, of which an estimated 35 individual animals reside here, Bandhavgarh also hosts a good population of Leopard, which can be found in peripheral areas of the park avoiding an encounter with a Tiger, Jungle Cat, Dhole (Wild Dog), Indian Wolf, Jackal, Sloth Bear, Hanuman Langur and Rhesus Macaque.

Badhavgarh is home to the highest density of herbivores in India of 90.3 animals per sq km - this number is primarily made up of Chital (Spotted Deer) and Sambar, with smaller populations of Nilgai, Chinkara (Indian Gazelle), Chowsingha (Four-horned Antelope), Barking Deer, Gaur (Indian Bison) and Wild Boar. Birdlife is surprisingly rich given the distinctly dry habitat, with notable species including Alexandrine Parakeet, Common Woodshrike, Large Cuckooshrike, Yellow-throated Sparrow, Zitting Cisticola, Yellow-fronted Pied and Indian Pygmy Woodpeckers, Brahminy Starling, Indian Black Robin, Crested Tree Swift, White-eyed Buzzard, Crested Serpent Eagle, Spotted and Jungle Owlets, Collared Scops Owl and Mottled Wood Owl. Nights in a comfortable wildife lodge on the edge of the park.

After a final morning game drive at Bandhavgarh depart for Kanha (6hrs). Covering an area of 1949 sq km Kanha is the largest protected area in central India, and one of the most effectively managed in India. Tiger Tour With Enchanted India

The reserve is divided into 5 ranges, and our base will be the traditionally quieter Mukki range where we hope to avoid the hustle and bustle of the busier Kanha and Kisli Ranges. A prominent feature of Kanha’s landscape is the wide open ‘maidans’ or meadows, that have developed on sites of earlier settlements and their surrounding fields, now relocated outside the park boundaries. These meadows are popular converging points for herbivores and so highly conducive to wildlife sightings,bparticularly in the drier summer months, that Kanha has become one of India’s most frequented reserves and one of the best places in the world to see Tiger. Despite its importance as a Tiger reserve, Kanha was originally designated in order to protect theb‘hard-ground’ race of Barasingha (Swamp Deer), which is now endemic to Kanha and can be found here in good numbers alongside Chital, Sambar, Barking Deer, Nilgai, rarer Chousingha and Blackbuck, Wild Boar, Dhole, and with luck Sloth Bearband Leopard.

Over 300 species of resident and migratory birds have been recorded here, including a good selection of larks and pipits, Indian Roller, Painted Francolin, Red and Painted Spurfowls, Red Junglefowl, Rufous and Heart Spotted Woodpeckers, Lesser Yellownape, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Brown-headed and Coppersmith Barbets, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Indian and Velvet-fronted Nuthatches, Red Collared and Emerald Doves, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Black-hooded Oriole, Indian Peafowl,bCrested Hawk Eagle, Black-winged Kite, and Oriental Honey Buzzard. In addition, the mixed habitat supports a good selection of butterflies, reptiles and wild flowers, and it is the excellent all-round wildlife viewing that adds to Kanha’s popularity.

As at Pench, our excursions into the park will be on morning and afternoon game drives in open jeeps, however at Kanha we will be able to take packed breakfast into the park and stay inside the reserve until midday. It may also be possible to view Tigers from Elephant-back by taking part in ‘Sher Darshan’ or Tiger show, during which visitors are ferried to otherwise inaccessible areas of the forest for short but close views of a resting Tiger tracked by the forest department mahouts. This is entirely subject to availability and cannot be guaranteed. Midday periods are free to relax, or for birdwatching walks around our lodge. Nights in a comfortable luxury tented camp in the outskirts of the reserve a few minutes drive from the Mukki entrance gate.

Kanha to Nagpur to Delhi Depart Kanha for the return drive to Nagpur, connecting to a domestic flight to Delhi. Nilgai, rarer Chousingha and Blackbuck, Wild Boar, Dhole, and with luck Sloth Bear and Leopard. Over 300 species of resident and migratory birds have been recorded here, including a good selection of larks and pipits, Indian Roller, Painted Francolin, Red and show, during which visitors are ferried to otherwise inaccessible areas of the forest for short but close views of a resting Tiger tracked by the forest department mahouts. This is entirely subject to availability and cannot be guaranteed. Midday periods are free to relax,