Tadoba Experience

Hi,
Being from the south region and used to roaming around the jungles out there, I and my group of friends always wanted to explore jungles up north but the distance / cost factor held us back. Just over then, got to know about Tadoba through a fellow INWian Shalik Jogwe... and thus started our journey into the wild wild world with an altogether different terrain / climate and surroundings.
Distance and Travel: Tadoba is quite far from Bangalore (about 1200 kms) and the train journey is cumbersum and long about 20+ hours each way. There are quite a few trains that goes via Chandrapur (the station nearest to tadoba) - Sanghamitra expres, Gorakhpur express, Jodhpur express to name a few and the other alternate options would be either board the Rajdhani express and alight at Kazipet that is around 3 hrs from Chandrapur or fly upto Nagpur and then traverse on road for about 3 hours again.
We took the Sanghamitra express day train onward and the Gorakhpur express on our return journey from Bangalore to Chandrapur and vice versa. From Chandrapur Tadoba is about 18kms away.
Accommodation and Food: We stayed at the MTDC resort @ Rs.900 per day (rates vary per season) and food cost extra. Currently stay options are limited at Tadoba to MTDC resort, Resort Saras and Tadoba resort. Still it was a good and comfortable stay at the MTDC. There is a FRH too at Kolsa that is available with prior permissions.
Safari and Timings: The park is closed on Tuesdays. Entry time is from 6am to 9am (exit by 11am) and 3pm to 5pm (exit by 7pm). Private vehicles are allowed inside with a forest guide. Camera fee / Safari fee / Guide fees etc.. are charged that are nominal. An ideal safari round would be for about 4-5 hours with rounds around Tadoba and Mohurli region.
Other Info: If you are lucky, you would be sighting tigers on the road itself.
Birding is another good option with varieties of winged visitors to see.
The terrain is wonderful, with plains / dense areas / bamboo lined paths / open vast fields; the entire park offers a range of landscape views to the visitor.
Our Feedback: First of all many thanks to Shalik Jogwe for helping us out and arranging everything for us including the pick up and drop from Chandrapur station to TATR, arranging for a gypsy at our service till we were there, joining us on a safari ride, booking accommodations etc and mainly for all the hardwork he is doing in the field at Tadoba as a wildlifer working towards the conservation and popularizing Tadoba.
1. As we all discussed, the cost factor is an important thing which needs to be controlled for pulling in visitors.
2. Food is another area where only few options are available at Tadoba.
3. Pamplets can be distributed by your NGO with the help of the forest dept staff
(i) highlighting the concerns of TATR
(ii) how precious tigers are for the land and the ecosystem
(iii) how precious and sensitive is the TATR area for the conservation of tigers
(iv) how important is the role of any visitor to the park
(v) how not to panic when in an unforeseen condition (like when any tigers / gaur charge at the open jeeps - this can also be helpful to the villagers also)
(vi) what not to do when in the forest area (avoiding plastics, maintaining silence, colors of the clothes worn, shouting etc...)
4. Requesting all visitors to campaign against the mining at TATR.
5. Most importantly suggestions on how to improve conditions at Tadoba.


Finally saying Tigers are to be preserved to show our future generations what an elegant / charismatic creature existed and hopefully they continue to rein for centuries to come...

With regards and wishes,
Santosh (http://adventureanytime.blogspot.com)
Nagaraj / Gaitonde
Gururaj.
from Bangalore.