Become involved, not just another tourist on a tiger safari holiday..as you learn hands-on the daily job of a naturalist researcher. Learn to spot and classify species, track tiger and set photographic traps, amid beautiful jungle book forest.

For a long time now Africa has been regarded as the Mecca for wildlife and safari holidays. Yet, housing one of the richest diversities of life forms on earth the Indian peninsula is a veritable Eden. Today it is under siege from one fifth of humanity and yet remarkably it survives in all its diverse forms, especially the Sal and teak forests of Madhya Pradesh, the ‘Tiger State’, our focus of this tour and home to most of the remaining tigers in India.

We offer something different for those who want more than the ordinary tiger safari tour. Focusing on two well known Tiger reserves, Bandavgarh and then Panna, this trip aims to get you involved in a small way in an ongoing wildlife research programme.

Based out of comfortable lodges in Bandavgarh and Panna Tiger Reserve you will have the opportunity to spend days and even the odd night searching for Tigers and other wildlife. As you track tigers you will enjoy guided walks with park rangers, carry out an animal and pug mark census, meet local villagers, spend a day with the park elephant team, spend a night on a tree hideout, and meet experts behind the research projects in the Park, whilst also enjoying all that this stunning park has to offer. This includes over 200 species of birds, a number of other cat species like Leopard and Jungle Cat. Wolves, Wild dogs, Sloth bear and numerous species of deer and antelope or ‘Tiger food’ also inhabit the forests and plateaus.

One trip to India can never hope to reveal all its natural wealth but here is one that whets the appetite and goes beyond the average tiger safari.

Make an Enquiry & learn more

Dates & Prices
16th November to 29th November 2008
15th February to 28th February 2009
15th March to 28th March 2009

Cost for Tour in 2008
From £3,725 per person based on twin share room in Feb & March 2008
*Based on a minimum of 8 persons travelling together. Maximum 10 persons.

Travelling from outside the UK
We are happy to quote you either in US dollars or Euros – without flights to the destination city. Because of recent currency fluctuations we will quote you separately for this. Please do contact us for the price.

This includes:

Return scheduled international flights, all meals excluding Delhi, all domestic flights and train tickets, transportation, all accommodation fully inclusive of meals, all expertise of project team and arrangements as per the itinerary, plus a contribution that covers a Panna welfare fund, a community development project on Panna buffer zones and Travel Operators for Tigers campaign.

Excludes:

Travel insurance, visas, vaccinations, meals in Delhi, gratuities and items of a personal nature

No single supplement is payable if you are willing to share but we cannot find you a roommate. If you want a guaranteed single room the cost is £430pp.

This Trip Supports..

Global Tiger Patrol Travel Operators for Tigers

These tours are a direct funding for wildlife research efforts in Panna and funding to support recent community conservation efforts on the buffers of the park.

Travel Operators for Tigers
The Travel Operators for Tigers campaign (TOFT) is a travel industry platform, in cooperation with Global Tiger Patrol, that aims to advocate and support a more responsible and sustainable approach to tourism in South Asia’s wildlife reserves, together with aiding specific conservation programmes which benefit the local communities and wildlife.

Global Tiger Patrol
This Discovery Initiatives tour supports Global Tiger Patrol, actively funding projects across a range of project Tiger reserves including Panna. Founded in 1989, Global Tiger Patrol (GTP) is a conservation agency prioritising protection of the tiger in the field. GTP concentrates its work in India, as the subcontinent is home to about 55% of the world’s remaining wild tigers.

Click here to see the article in the Sunday Times by Jeremy Lazell

Field Expertise

Kolipaka Shekhar

Kolipaka Srinivas Shekhar is a wildlife biologist specializing in studying wildcats. Indian jungles support the highest diversity of wildcats in the world and Shekhar’s field locations include the cloud forest of Indo-burma region, Upper Himalaya, Central Indian dry forests, Moist forests of the Eastern ghats and the rain forests of Western ghats.

He is involved in research to establish ways to monitor populations of wildcats including a long term project in the Panna Tiger Reserve Region. His work in central India has helped in understanding the current status and threats for the species survival of the rare Indian caracal and the rusty spotted cat in Central India.

He is associated with the IUCN Cat Specialist Group and a host of national and international researchers in conducting research in India.

Click here to see his trip

Should you wish to get direct feedback from any number of our numerous clients who have enjoyed Tigers and India with us please do contact us and we would be delighted to help put you in touch.

Shekhar was fantastic, his knowledge amazing and he has a great manner, really made the trip for us
C Markey Nov 2007

“Two weeks back in the UK and I’m still day dreaming of my Indian adventure. Although I’ve sent the official ‘reply’ I wanted to write personally to say that it was the most amazing trip I’ve ever been on. I’m not particularly well travelled but the others in my party were and even they were hugely impressed with the knowledge and patience of Shekhar – our guide who seemed to have an inexhaustiable knowledge of India’s flora and fauna.

It was a fantastic and magical experience, not least because we saw 7 different tigers (we were assured that it had not been stage-managed!) but the people at both the Kings Lodge and the Ken River Lodge made it a very special experience.

It is a trip that will stay with me forever – I only wish I’d done it twenty years ago!”

Vicky Flynn 2007

This has been the trip of a lifetime and since we want more life we are already thinking about where to do to and what to see next. We particularly enjoyed being part of the research and making a real contribution to the preservation of tigers and the ecology of the park. We learned so much about all the flora and fauna in the parks and the delicate ecological balance that supports them. We could not have learned this with so much impact in any other way.
J Briggs 2006

Having just returned from India and the tiger study tour I felt compelled to write to you to express my gratitude to you and your staff I had not been to India before and travelling initially alone I was a little apprehensive! However I really needn’t have worried. The whole trip was so well organised from beginning to end and everyone I met along the way was professional, friendly and did all within their power to ensure I had a safe and enjoyable trip. The wildlife was stunning the ecologists so knowledgeable and who conveyed an enthusiasm for their work, which was totally absorbing and very infectious.
Linda Harding 2006