NEWSLINK: The big cat diary

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve
Best from: Nagpur
You need: 3 days

There’s only one principle that I have followed in my 35 years of travelling into the wild: Never visit the same place twice. There’s so much to see in India that you can’t see it all in one lifetime. (Is that the reason why we Indians believe in rebirth, I romantically wonder.) Of course, I did make an exception once. That was the Silent Valley in Kerala.

I feel it’s time to make a second exception, for a tiger reserve called Tadoba. (Usually, big cats don’t feature in my bucket list; even a flying lizard is enough to send me into raptures. But this time, the urge to spot the big cats suddenly overpowers me, and I decide to go there in the oppressive heat of 43°C.) On hindsight, it was a pretty good decision. Because it turns out to be the richest wildlife spectacle that I have witnessed in our amazing land.

Spread over 600 sq km, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is a supreme example of eco-tourism where locals and the forest department do a wonderful job of protecting wildlife, and controlling close to a hundred congenitally vocal tourists every day.

Day One: Soon after entering the core area near Khatoda Gate, we chance upon a sloth bear (below).READ MORE