One more Jungle Safari, this time it was Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve
Tadoba Andhari Tiger Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, plan was to enter the jungle early morning, and back home by evening, Tadoba Tiger Reserve is open throughout year, it also has tarred road in between connecting Mul and Chandrapur only by state bus 2 times a day, morning and evening, there are 3 villages inside the jungle, these busses are mainly for these villagers, the road condition is "good" for Jungles. Morning 6 AM to evening 7 PM is allowed time, other than these busses, government vehicle and villagers no one is allowed to use this road. Each entry needs to be registered and entry to main Jungle need a appointed guide and entry charges of Rs 20 each person, Rs40 for each vehicle and Rs 50 for Guide. The gypsy available here are quite costly; they charge Rs1300 for one trip in Jungle. I decided against that and again too my Scorpio for Jungle ride.
There are 3 gates to enter Tadoba, from Chimur, Mul and Chandrapur, Chimur entry gate takes you through buffer zone and the road leading to Jungle gate is worse than Jungle road, Mul and Chandrapur gate is fine, I entered the Jungle from Chandrapur gate. The entry from Chandrapur Jungle makes you pass through Coal India Open Cast mine called as Padmapur and Thermal Power Station called at Durgapur called as Urjanagar. Recently one Leopard was caught at Ordnance Factory at Bhandak located in Tadoba Jungle and a bear in Urjanagar. Leopards are mostly seen in nearby villages rather than in Jungle! Even tigers are seen nowadays more in local area near by Jungle rather than in core Jungle. This entry only requires you to enter your information while the main entry to Jungle is through from a place called Maholi, It has a very interesting hoarding there, please see the image of this hoarding!!
This time I was able to see some wild animals; wild boar, sambar , spotted dear and crocodiles. Todoba Lake has lots of crocodile, crocodile in rainy season crosses the main lake and get to all smaller ponds through connected streams to smaller ponds, they stay there till water last and then back to main lake in Jungle. Till April this year people were allowed in night time on "Machans" but this has been stopped now, even the guest house and resorts that were running in the Jungle has been removed, people were allowed to step out of vehicle previously not any more, you have to be in your vehicle only.
There are 2 routes to reach Chandrapur from Nagpur, one is to take Hyderabad National Highway till Jab and then state highway covering Warora, Bhandak and then Chandrapur, this is the most preferred route and 90% people take this route, the second route is Nagpur-Umred-Nagbhir-Shindewahi-Mul and Chandrapur. I took this route for return journey, the road are better than the Bhandhak-Warora-Jam, by this route you travel 200Km and the other route is only 160km.
Bamboo is everywhere in Jungle and that makes spotting any animal hard, the best time to spot all animal is Feb to July, this is the time when water in the lake is at lowest level and all other water sources in Jungle dries, Jungle administrative has created cemented tank along side road for animals and this allows people to see all the animals.
Entered the Jungle in morning 6 Am and was back from there by 11.30Am, drove back from the Umred road, and was back at home at 2.30PM, enjoy another Jungle images
Image with 2 white tree is called Ghost tree, in night this 2 tree has a glowing effect, that's why they are called ghost tree, I have seen similar tree in Khanna also.