SmitaBe
★★★★★5.0Wrote on 29 May 2023
Lush national Park with plenty of animals
​​We did two early morning safaris and saw lions both times. Overall, we saw fifteen lions. In the first safari, we saw ten lions, two leopards and a cub, a few crocodiles, scores of sambar, nilgai, langoor, peacocks, peahens, eagles, and two peacocks dancing. Peacocks are aplenty, as common as crows in the city, and we saw many of them cavorting around us, crossing the road, or calling to each other. We saw lions drink water, fan themselves, and cross the road. We also saw a leopard cross the road. It was a bonanza sighting both times. No complaints. ​​​​The queue at the counter to get a jeep and guide is long, even at 5:30 am in peak summer, but it moves fast. You only need to show the mobile reservation voucher to be assigned both. The forest is divided into zones. And so these 50 jeeps are spread out into 13 zones, making for a very pleasant, non-intrusive viewing experience with low disturbance for the animals. Preserve the voucher for your next safari so you are allocated a different route. We went on Route 13 the first morning (10 lion sightings, 3 leopard sightings, and the Kamleshwar Dam view) and Route 9 (5 lion sightings, and a thicker forest).​​There are 674 lions in 315 square km. The chances of seeing lions are highest in the first half of the early morning safari (between 6 - 7 a.m., when the lions wake up to have water) and in the last half of the night safari (5 - 6 p.m. when the lions wake up for their nightly hunting activity). Get an early start and be one of the first to make it to a spot in the park for the morning safari. Jeeps are a disturbance to the lions, who will leave as more of them arrive.