Jim Corbett safaris

Foggy mornings at Jim Corbett

In Jan this year, I finally made it to Jim Corbett National Park, a park I have been trying to visit for years. It was a 4 day trip, with two days spent in travel from and to Delhi and two days of safaris. I loved the jungle, it was so green and dense and pristine, so stunning in its rawness. And even though we barely spotted a tiger, it was still fine as we saw a few other wild animals in their natural surroundings. But given it was January, the cold made it quite an average trip as we were always so cold, we could barely move or explore anything outside of the safaris we went on. So as much as I enjoyed this trip, I know I need to go back when the weather is more tolerable, and this time, get to see the real park, its animal, its trees, its rivers and explore all it has to explore, much more than what I was able to do on this trip.


Getting There

We had planned for a 4 day trip to the Park and we got a driver to drive us from and to Delhi. Google Maps shows the driving time to be about 6 hours but we took a bit longer, given the bad traffic and fog on the way. We were staying at the Corbett Riverside Resort which is located in Dhikuli near Ramnagar. The route from Delhi to Dhikuli goes through small towns of UP and Uttarakhand - Hapur, Moradabad and Kashipur, names I have always heard but had never been to. We took quite long to get out of Delhi given the usual city traffic. And thereafter, the drive was just about comfortable.

The road is most of the way a single lane road with crazy traffic going both sides. And I could easily see why it was a good idea for me not to drive on this trip - the driving skills required to drive in such smaller roads in India are beyond me. Where vehicles overtake each other even when there is oncoming traffic!! And 2 vehicles could at the same time be overtaking the same vehicle!! This is the kind of driving I had never learnt and given how long I have been driving outside India, where you have to follow the rules of the road, I don’t think I can handle this anymore 😁. Its best to leave such driving to the experts.

It was very cold and foggy most of the way on the drive. And we could see rural India waking up and getting on with its daily tasks. There were small towns all the way till Ramnagar, the rural parts of UP which reminded me of my childhood days when I used to be in touch with and see a lot more of the real India. Everything felt so nice and fresh in the January fog. With small mud or brick houses, small settlements, cattle walking around and people going on about their agriculture based life. There were many people sitting on the sides of the roads, around a burning fire and having their morning teas. And even though it was so cold, they were not wearing as many warm clothes as I was.

The roadside was quite green most of the way. We crossed lot of fields full of sarson and sugarcane. And also some industries on the way. We also crossed the Ganga which always feels surreal. The last part of the road before we got to Ramnagar got worse in quality and gave us a lot of bumps on the way. But overall the journey was quite nondescript.

Ramnagar was the nearest town to our resort. It is located in the foothills, and right after that you start going up the mountains. Dhikuli and Garjiya are popular places to stay nearby, on the banks of river Kosi. These were erstwhile villages which now are a huge stretch of all kinds of luxury hotels lining the narrow mountain road, close to the Bijrani entrance to the Park.

A lot of India - its towns and cities - are so imperfect that way. Its cities are not as pretty as in say, Europe and nature is also beautiful only in the mountains and near the sea. Most of the plains are bereft of any obvious beauty other than the lush green fields during season. But this is what home is like for me. I thought a lot during this drive, comparing my life now and what my home is like. Now these scenes feel like from a different century, a place I have left so far behind that I worry sometimes if I can relate to it anymore? Its not happened yet, but can it happen some day?


Our Accommodation - Corbett Riverside Resort

We reached our hotel, the Corbett Riverside Resort - slightly late at night after it had got dark. It was along the line of resorts, towards the end, nearer to Garjiya and was right on the banks of river Kosi. Our first impression of the resort was not great though. We had expected better rooms but the ones we saw hadn’t been upgraded for years. Given it was late, it was tough to change our hotel but we looked at a few of their other rooms and shifted to the tiger den which was definitely much better.

Outside tiger den

So it turned out they had an older set of rooms which were not great and looked nothing like the ones on booking.com. But as you went inside the resort, the ones closer to the river Kosi bank were a lot better. So we took the best ones and felt slightly better about the trip after the initial shock 😊. The tiger den rooms were huge, well decorated and had a pool and swing right outside the room. It was definitely an upgrade and would have been even more awesome in summer.

Grounds in the resort

The hotel had a lot of open and green space, lined with trees, flowers and even a kitchen garden. It was enjoyable to sit outside and enjoy the sun. The service was good as everyone was trying to help the residents. Right outside the huge green space was the river Kosi, lazily flowing on a wide riverbed and across it were small mountains. The whole view and ambience was picturesque and relaxing. At least during the day, it felt that the resort would have been awesome when it was first developed and had definitely seen better days.

They had a restaurant on the river banks which served buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had breakfast there daily and dinner only the first day. The breakfast had a good spread and was tasty. The dinner though felt overpriced and average. At night, they organised bonfires outside where live singers belted out hindi songs at night, with the fire keeping the residents warm as well as cooking food. It would have been fun to come here in a big group (and also if it wasn’t so cold). Also apparently tigers had been seen outside the resort gate at least 5 times in the last few years. So it was definitely a fun place to be, though we of course didn’t get to see the tigers, even inside the park 😜.

Kosi river bed

The Kosi riverbed was huge and wide though currently there was not a lot of water in the river and all the stones underneath were exposed. We saw people playing in the water when the sun was out, which was surprising. And some people were walking their donkeys or crossing with their horses through the river. I really wonder how they were able to get into the cold water! Maybe it wasn’t as cold as I thought, but I did not dare venture in to check.


Weather

When we were there, it was the peak of foggy winter. So temperatures were very low and there was fog all over the park, and even outside. But two mornings, the resort right outside the Park was all sunny and clear, which made us expect clearer safaris, but that was not to be, and it was still all foggy and cold inside. Apparently it was so because there had been no rains and winds from the hills for some time, so the fog just stayed there forever. Sometimes though the sun came out and it got warmer but there was still a chill in the air which made us all very lazy to get out of our rooms much (as they had heaters on).


About Jim Corbett Park

Jim Corbett Park is one of the largest national parks in India and extends mostly in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand. Only about 20% of the area is designated as tourist allowed zones, the rest is not open to public. It has 5 major tourist zones each with its own safari entry gate. There were villages earlier inside the Park but most of them have been moved away. The names of the tourist zones and gates are the only memories of the villages which now remain.

It has about 200 tigers in total, all of which are tracked and counted regularly by an office in Dehradun. It is also one of the most respected national parks in India - here most of the rules are followed, the forest is well maintained and there is very little litter (which is saying a lot for any place in India!). And you can see the pride in all the people who work here. It does provide employment through tourism to the residents around but you can see how much they enjoy and value working here, talking about its animals and how the Park has done a great job of protecting them.

Bijrani guest house in the park

Even within the park, there is a buffer zone which still has villages and locals staying there. You need to cross the buffer zone to get in and get into the main park. Inside it also has forest offices and guest houses located in each of the zones. These are from British times and have an old world charm about them. The rangers and forest officials stay inside, for conducting their research and protecting the animals. Also, the park if open for most of the year except the rainy season when all the rivers and river beds fill up with water and that is when it shuts down.


About the gypsy safaris

Bookings for the safaris opens only 45 days before and mostly rules are followed for booking. At max, 2 VIP permits are allowed last minute, not more. We went for safaris to the Bijrani and Jhirna zones. For the Bijrani gate, at max 30 gypsies are allowed daily and this is tightly controlled. Each safari has a guide and the driver who work as a team. All of them are locals and know each other, they have been working here all their lives,and regularly share info with all the passing gypsies. They can also guess looking at people’s faces if they have seen tigers yet or not 😜.

We had booked our safaris early on - 4 gypsy safaris with a guide and driver, 3 of them in the Bijrani zone where tiger sightings are more common and one in Jhrina zone which was a bit farther and smaller. We did two morning safaris which start at 6 am and two evening ones for which you leave around 2. The gypsy comes and picks you up from your hotel, and then you can go and lineup at the gate, waiting for your turn to go in. People queue up very early as they want to be the first ones to go in, before the other gypsies come in and disturb the peace.

Gypsy safaris

The morning safaris were crazy. First of all you leave when its still very dark. On top of it, it was so so cold in the fog, we could barely keep our faces out of all the layers and blankets we had on top of us. And then driving around in an open gypsy doesn’t make any of it any easier. But this is the best way to spot maximum animals and so there we were.


Flora and Fauna - Bijrani zone

Small rivers

We did 3 safaris (2 morning and 1 afternoon) in the Bijrani zone. It is one of the larger zones, with some small mountains, a river bed, some small rivulets, a beautiful valley and lot of greenery, tiger grass and forests in this zone. Once inside, you end up driving all along the criss crossing roads in the zone, tracking animal calls and trying to spot the elusive tiger.

Jungles of Jim Corbett

To be honest given how dense and green the jungle was, and how cold it was, we saw very limited animals. In fact in one of the safaris, we only saw a few deer in the entire 2 hours! This is quite in contrast to the African safaris where you see a lot more animals because of the dry grasslands. But I think that’s where the charm of Jim Corbett park is. Its dense and green jungles make it tougher but also more satisfying when you spot an animal suddenly which had been casually hiding in the foliage till a second ago. Most of the vegetation here is made up of semi-deciduous trees, with more than 100 varieties of trees found here, sal being the most common one. And apparently, the forest here is always green. The different trees have different seasons for shedding their leaves, so there will always be a part of the forest green anf flowering.

Jungle evenings

There were some small mountains and a bit of undulating landscapes but not too much. We drove by a lot of small rivulets and through a river bed where tiger spotting is common. Except that it was too foggy to see a tiger even if he was right in front of you 😁. The whole jungle was very calm and serene all through, very quiet, with huge trees all around you. And there weren’t too many gypsies either given the winter weather.

Sunrise on a cold foggy morning

We saw a stunning sunrise one of the mornings with sun rays falling on the grasslands, the river bed and the mountains which felt even more charming against the white fog. The trees looked exquisite in the sunrise, with shades of yellow and green. But the fascinating scenes in the mornings were not enough for us to even get our faces fully out of our jackets! It was too cold and I really wish the weather had been just a tad bit warmer.

Sambhar

We spotted a lot of animals overall in the safaris. We ran into a few sambhars in the foliage, the tiger’s favourite prey.

Barking deer

We spotted a few barking deer which I had seen for the first time. They are very small and reddish in colour. They are very sensitive by nature, prefer to graze around solitary and run away at the slight sound of people. We heard one of it bark too and they sound like dogs barking, hence the name.

Hunched langur

We saw a few spotted deer, chitals and rhesus monkeys here and there, but even those were too few and far between in the morning safaris. The langurs that we saw were mostly on the trees, sitting in a slouched pose, hugging themselves in the cold. They were always hanging out in groups and are generally one of the most dependable animals for giving timely tiger alarm calls. Apparently langurs and spotted deer are good friends too, they hang out together and help each other against other predators.

More langur

We spotted a few birds too in the jungle - some peacocks, an orange woodpecker, a couple of yellow and red birds and some jungle peafowl. There are some migratory birds also which are found near the Dhikala reservoir which is supposed to be the richest in terms of number and variety of animals spotted.

Deer inside the park

Regarding the larger animals, we saw some bear and tiger pug marks along the tracks but that was it. Apparently this zone had some 4-5 tigers and a few tiger cubs too. But their movements were limited because of the cold, making spotting less probable. We saw lot of recent tiger pug marks and heard a couple of deer alarm calls. We tracked the pug marks and alarm calls a few times but never ever spotted a tiger. There was a lioness with 3 cubs apparently in the river bed but she never came out to give us a look 😟. The other guides would say - ‘mota sal ke paas kal tiger dikha tha (thats how the guides identify locations in the jungle) and we would go there but with no luck. And that's how all the three safaris went

Also apparently, one of the mornings we were there, a group of school children who had come in late, spotted a tiger near the Bijrani forest office, right near the entrance and left soon enough within 30 mins of being on the safari! Thats how lucky or unlucky you can be with spottings. Our guide also mentioned that all the real wildlife lovers wouldn’t mind if they didn’t have a spotting. They would sit in the same place for hours to wait for a tiger and not complain if they didn’t see it. This was quite the contrast with the typical tourists (me included) who still expect a tiger to turn up in every safari 😂.

Constrained elephants

When you enter the gate and drive through the buffer zone, you first stop at the Bijrani forest office which has a few guesthouses from British times. Apparently you can even stay there inside the park. They have a few tame elephants kept there. Earlier they used to take tourists on elephant safaris. However, the tigers had attacked them a couple of times and so they stopped running those. The tame elephants still stay near the guesthouses. On one of the safaris we came across them while they were eating their breakfast in the forest near the offices. But I found it quite disturbing that two of their feet were bound by chains making it tough for them to walk so they cant get too far. I can understand why its done but I still think its inhuman to do it. These majestic animals need to roam free, at least in a national park...

Male wild elephant...

And we did have such a spotting on the safari. We ran into a lone wild male elephant who was sitting in the tiger grass. Elephants especially lone male ones are known to be very aggressive. So our guide drove there in reverse gear so that he was ready and could accelerate and drive away the gypsy comfortably at any time. Even though I felt at the time that it was being too cautios, it turned out that precautions like these are required.

...charging at us

While we were casually observing him from a distance, he walked lazily towards us and then suddently charged! You could clearly see he would have attacked us if we hadn’t driven away immediately. But he soon lost interest in us, turned around and walked away in the river bed for some time. It was at this point the guide said - as innocent as they look, elephants are the most dangerous animals in these jungles. Tigers to sajjan hote hai, not aggressive at all and very shaant in nature.

I really liked this spotting as its the first time I had seen a wild elephant in India. I also realised that African animals on an average are much bigger than their Indian counterparts.


Flora and fauna - Jhirna zone

Our last safari was in Jhirna zone which was about 25 kms away from Girjya and supposedly had less tigers than Bijrani. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but actually turned out to be our best safari of the trip. The weather was better, we saw more animals and almost spotted a tiger too! So much for the better zones.

We got down from the hills towards Ramnagar and then drove in the plains to get to the Jhirna gate. It was at a much lower height, at just 300m above sea level so the weather also considerably improved (and that means became warmer). It was apparently around 20 degrees or so then, but it definitely felt colder than that. So to be safe, we were still all packed up but definitely more comfortable than the other safaris.

It felt a lot more urban area on the drive there and we saw a lot more high end resorts near this gate. We also drove through some of the villages on the way which had litchi and mango orchards on both sides. I now remember when I used to stay in Dehradun, we used to get a lot of mangoes and litchis from this area. The road to Dehradun also apparently passed through this area, though now its being disused.

Grasslands of Jhirna

Jhirna was more plain and less dense than the other zones with a lot more grasslands and open spaces. Jhirna is the name of a village which was located in this zone. The village was slowly moved out and its location has now become a grassland, which is still plain and easily visible from far. This is also where a lot of spottings happen, given the easy view. We saw a wild boar, a sambhar and a few peacocks walking around lazily in this grassland.

Wild peacock

And then we saw a hornbill fly away. As we drove around this vast plain area, we also saw two spotted deer eating ber from the tree. The male deer was jumping and shaking the tree with his antlers for the ber to fall down for him and his mate to eat. It was a very charming sight and I remember our guide’s comment on the scene - bhagwan har kisi ko zinda rehne layak buddhi zaroor deta hai.

Vulture family

Inside the zone, we saw loads of langurs and monkeys, all sitting atop trees and eating away to glory. On one of the huge mountain cliffs, we spotted a family of vultures who were soaring away is the skies. It was a huge family of 20-30 vultures, some of them sitting around the nest and sunning themselves in the sun, some were sitting on top of the trees and some flying around looking for their next prey.

Just born deer

And of course we saw the usual spotted deer everywhere, eating away while the temperature was comfortable. We even saw a baby of only 1-2 days who stared at us for 5 mins, trying to figure out what we were, before running off to its mother. That was a very cute and endearing sight.

Where we saw a tiger
for a brief second!

We did have our one minor tiger spotting in this zone. A gypsy was going in front of us and right when it turned around a bend, I saw a yellow spot swiftly cross the road. Vaguely hoping it was a tiger, I shouted and our driver accelerated the gypsy towards the bend. And my guide, driver and friend then caught a glimpse of the baby tiger on the other side of the road who glanced at us and then ran away jumping through the grass! And its so surprising that even though I spotted it and directed our gypsy towards it, I couldn’t spot it when it was on the other side of the road. And the gypsy right in front of us also did not see the tiger crossing right behind it. I guess thats what tiger spottings are about, totally random and luck dependent events.

Coming back from Jhirna

So we spent the next 2 hours hoping to run into the tiger again but alas that was not our luck. We did spot the usual animals though. And while coming back from this gate, we gave a lift to a local woman who was walking back to the village. While talking to her, she casually mentioned how she has spotted so many tigers and leopards walking past her multiple times while she was here cutting grass. I don’t think I can ever imagine what king of feeling it would be to see tigers and leopards on your daily walks, isn’t it?


Outside the park

We did not spend much time outside the resort given the daily safaris and the cold. All along the road, on one side there is teak plantation and the other side are resorts. Of those, Taj Gateway seemed quite a nice place to stay. It had a nice ambience and lot of activities to keep you busy.

Other than the resorts, there were loads of small typical tourist shops - some selling souvenirs, some dhabas offering local food, some tourist activities and of course the typical tea stalls - all along the road. There were two elephants standing next to the road and offering rides to children. And unlike inside the park, there was too much litter everywhere. We had dinner at Kebab Grill everyday, right next to our resort and it was one of the tastiest meals that I have had in a long time. All these local dhabas offer such tasty food, I am always surprised by it.

One of the days I also went to Ramnagar for a small errand which was the nearest town and I was just amazed at the pace and life of the small town India we have all left behind. I went to the local market and it felt so natural and alien at the same time that its weird. For now I still feel local and at home at such places, but I sometime wonder when I will start looking at all this like an outsider?


Coming back

Anyways so it was time soon to come back and another long drive to Delhi. There was no fog in the hills where we were but the moment we were back in the plains in Ramnagar, it got foggy all the way to Delhi. While coming back, I was chuckling on the fact that even after 6 safaris at 2 different parks, I never spotted a tiger (or barely one) as it was winter. And in 2 out of 4 safaris in Kanha, we had managed a few great sightings! The weather (and of course luck) makes such a huge difference…

From this visit, I’ve also figured out the best way to visit Kanha from Delhi. It makes sense to take the overnight train to Ramnagar as its more convenient and saves time. And then it makes sense to stay inside the park. Of the different locations possible inside, the Dhikala reservoir zone is supposedly the best. It is on the banks of the huge Ramganga reservoir inside the park and when you stay there, you can go for daily safaris.. You are closer to the interiors and have higher chance of better sightings. And apparently you can even see wild elephant packs there unlike other zones. But all this needs to be booked as a package deal beforehand. So thats the plan for the next time 😀.