Look for tigers in Ranthambore

What the experience is

Ranthambore National Park lies in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, between the Banas and Chambal rivers. It began as a game sanctuary in 1955, became part of Project Tiger in 1973 and a national park in 1980. The wider tiger reserve is much larger than the national park itself.

Visitors enter in open vehicles with a driver and a naturalist, on drives of about three hours at first light and in the late afternoon. The park is divided into zones, and each vehicle is assigned one. The guides read pugmarks on the track and listen for the alarm calls of deer and monkeys.

What makes it different

The landscape is dry deciduous forest and open grassland, dominated by the dhonk tree, which is bare for much of the year. That openness makes animals easier to see than in denser jungle. The tigers here are used to vehicles and are often active by day.

The setting is unusual. Ranthambore Fort, built in the tenth century, stands on a crag inside the park, and old hunting pavilions and a rest house stand beside the lakes. Padam Talao is the largest. Tigers are sometimes seen walking past the ruins or hunting deer at the water’s edge.

Numbers have recovered from a low of about 15 in the early 2000s, when poaching reduced the population, to several dozen. The park also holds leopards, sloth bears, chital and sambar deer, marsh crocodiles and many species of birds.

When to go

The park is open from about October to June and closes for the monsoon. The cool months from November to February are the most pleasant. April to June is very hot, but the vegetation is thin and animals gather at the water, which many guides regard as the best period for sightings.

Good to know

Sightings are never guaranteed. Safari seats are limited and allocated by zone through the forest department, so they should be booked well ahead, usually through the hotel. Three or four drives give a fair chance of a tiger; a single drive may not. Mornings in winter are cold in an open vehicle.

Why OKYTO recommends it

It is among the most accessible tiger reserves in India, on the railway between Delhi and Mumbai, and unusual in sharing the ground with the ruins of a kingdom. Six Senses Fort Barwara, a restored fourteenth-century fort, is half an hour away.