Situated in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, Ranthambore National Park is one of the largest wildlife national parks (~500 sq kms area) of India known specially for tiger conservation. It's one of the main tourist destination in Rajasthan, attracting lacs of wildlife enthusiasts every year.
Best Time to visit Ranthambore The best time to visit Ranthambore is in the months of November to March when the weather is cold and pleasant. April to June are the hotter months and I would suggest you to avoid them.
The national park is closed during the monsoons - 1st July to 30th September.
Reaching Ranthambore By flight: The closest airport is Sanganer International Airport in Jaipur which is ~180 Kms from Ranthambore. One can get to the airport and easily get a cab or bus.
By Train: There is no railway line in Ranthambore. The nearest railway station is Sawai Madhopur from where one can get a cab or board a public transport bus to Ranthambore.
By Road: Ranthambore is very well linked with all the major cities (Jaipur, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, and Jodhpur) and towns through state cab service and you can easily reach there by cab or a private vehicle.
Distance by road: Delhi - 480 km (via Dausa), Jaipur - 180 km (via Tonk)
Wildlife/Tiger Safari Booking Every day, there are 2 slots for Safari. Every slot spans for 3.5 hours. The morning/first slot is from ~7 to 10:30 while the afternoon slot is from 2-5:30. I suggest you go for morning slot as the safari experience is more enjoyable in the morning breeze and mild sunlight as opposed to the harsh sun and sand in the afternoon slot.
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 1/10 by Akash Singhal Ranthambore Safari Timings There are two modes of booking:
- Online
This was very very confusing for me as I could not find exactly where to pre-book my seats for Jungle Safari. Like most other people, when you google for "online booking for Jungle Safari", the first link you probably get is : https://www.ranthamborenationalpark.com/query.html
I also booked through this but received no email or confirmation. And had to face trouble when we reached at the booking counter.
The actual link for the booking is:
http://fmdss.forest.rajasthan.gov.in/BookOnlineTicket/BookOnlineTicket
This requires SSO login (Rajasthan Single Sign-On) which is done by registering on https://sso.rajasthan.gov.in
Notes
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The online application should be done minimum 1 day prior to the safari date
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You have to reach the booking counter atleast 45 minutes prior to the safari timing
- Offline
This is old & simple way for the booking, by getting in queue at the booking counter.
Zones & Sighting Points The park is divided in total of 10 zones from Zone 1 to Zone 10. Zone 1 to Zone 5 are considered good zones with the higher probability of sighting a tiger, while Zone 5-10 are located on the outer part, as buffer zones.
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 2/10 by Akash Singhal There are lots of small lakes and water bodies where one can see lots of crocodiles chilling out around the water.
Vehicles - Gypsy vs Canter
There are two kind of safari vehicles utilized in the National Parks of India. One is Gypsy SUV, which can accommodate a maximum of 6 people while the second type is a Canter (an open bus) which can accommodate ~20 individuals at a time.
Gypsy has a few more advantages over the canter:
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During a safari, it is easier to manoeuvre a Gypsy (given its smaller size) compared to the Canter, which makes it better at accessing narrow trails and difficult terrains, which is otherwise not possible with the bulky Canter.
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In a Canter, since you are traveling with 20 other people, you don't have much control over it, while in case of the Gypsy, you are free to decide where to stop and when to move.
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 3/10 by Akash Singhal Wildlife safari in Canter Demography While most of the other national parks of India and outside are covered with evergreen forests, the Ranthambore National Park comprises of dry deciduous forest. 85% of the forest is made up of "Dhok Tree", which has small leaves that are shed off during the winters, thus providing better visibility of the tigers and other wildlife.
Two rivers flow through the forest: Chambal & Banas
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 4/10 by Akash Singhal Antelopes grazing the roots of water-grass and crocodiles enjoying the winter sun Wildlife 6 species of cat family are found here:
Big cats:- 1. Tiger 2. Leopard 3. Karakal
Small Cats:- 4. White Small 5. Rusty spotted 6. Fishing cat
Scavengers are very nocturnal here. Two species are majorly found: 1. Indian Golden Jackal 2. Hyena
Deers are very common and have a good population. Two types of deers can be found here:
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 5/10 by Akash Singhal Spotted deers grazing in the Ranthambore national park Antlers: These type change their horns every year
Spotted dear & Sambhar deer are ones from the antler category
Antelopes: They do have their horns permanently
Blue bull & Indian Gazelle are from antelopes category
In Ranthambore National Park, no animal/tiger is traced with a GPS device or any other technology. They are spotted with experience, like footprint following etc.
Interesting Facts about Tigers and Lions Lions stays in group and the group is led by the female, while males are the lazy ones and fed by lioness only.
Whereas, tigers (male as well as female) remain alone in their own territory and are totally independent. There are only two exceptional cases, one is during the mating season, in which the tiger and tigress can be seen together and other one is after a tigress has given birth to her cubs.
Tigress takes care of her cubs for around a year and then after that she kicks them off to make them choose their own territory. Sometimes, when a tiger cub is stronger than his/her mother, he/she throws off his/her mother out of the territory too.
Tigers mark their territory by spraying off their urine or marking with their jaws. They frequently walk in their region from end-to-end to confirm the security of their territory.
My Experience We were a group 5 people. We reached Ranthambore at 6 in the morning. We navigated to the tiger reserve directly, so we reached the national park entry gate which was closed, so we decided to wait for it to open, but after a while, after we asked a couple of people over there, we got to know that first we had to go to the booking counter which was 5 Kms in the other direction. So we rushed to the booking counter.
On reaching there, we tried to get a booking in zone 1-5, but it was not available in the morning slot. So we decided to go for the 2nd shift (the afternoon slot).
Till then, we went to Ranthambore fort
and booked a cantor for our safari in the afternoon time, as in the morning slot, we were not getting a ride in zone 1-5. We got zone 4 which has a few water bodies and lots of deers.
While, it's literally very rare to spot a tiger, and sometimes people are unsuccessful to spot a tiger even after taking 4-5 safaris, but to our luck, we got to spot the tiger T-84 (Arrowhead) and move with it for almost 20 minutes
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 6/10 by Akash Singhal Tiger T-84 (Arrowhead) spotted in our visit Rufous treepie
Treepie are the birds which clean tiger's teeth. These birds are in general very playful and brave (That's an ovbious no! :P). Following are couple of picture of my mom and dad playing with the treepies.
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 7/10 by Akash Singhal My mother playing with treepies :P Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 8/10 by Akash Singhal Treepies playing with my father :D This time, I did not carry my camera, so the pictures are shot on my phone, which is not as good but soon I will visit again to get some good pictures for you.
Other Places to visit in Ranthambore Ranthambore Fort Apart from wildlife safari, one can plan to visit the majestic Ranthambore Fort. It is ~1100 years old historical fort with massive walls and has a pretty good view from the top. It is located 5 Kms from the wildlife reserve entry gate.
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 9/10 by Akash Singhal 32-pillar canopy (locally known as 'battis kambha chhattri') in Ranthambore Fort Trinetra Ganesh Temple Trinetra or Three-eyed Ganesha temple is one of the oldest temples in Rajasthan. It was built by King Hammer of Ranthammbore
Photos of Wildlife Safari in Ranthambore 10/10 by Akash Singhal Ranthambore Ganesh Temple TL;DR This is an amazing place for wildlife enthusiast and photographers. You should definitely visit if you are atleast one of the two.
Visit in months of November - February if possible.
Try to book the safari online in advance.
Get a gypsy rather than a canter if you are in group of ~6.
Don't forget about zone! Get a booking in one of the main zones 1-5. It's highly unlikely to spot a tiger in buffer zones (6-10).
Carry a good DSLR if possible. That's fun! ;)
Finally, Not everything can be experienced reading this blog. You pack your bags and get the on-ground experience. I am pretty sure, you will learn a lot!
Happy tiger sighting :)