Samrat stayed, unmoved. He yawned a bit. His gaze settled somewhere in the middle of our jeep. And then, for a full couple of seconds – which would seem like eternity for all of us seated inside the vehicle – Samrat stared straight.
We froze. Everyone thought that the animal was looking at them. A snapshot of the safari | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Spread across 1536 square kilometres, the reserve is divided almost equally into core and buffer zones. Tiger tourism: then and now The tiger is a superstar in these parts of town, according to Manav Khanduja of Pugdundee Safaris, which runs the 14-hectare Kings Lodge set in a natural forested estate that contains 10 cottages and 8 stilt houses.
“Buffer zones include farms and villages, which exist with some restrictions,” explains Viswajit, “These are important because sub-adult tigers rely on such zones for easier prey such as cattle, while adult tigers prowl in core zones that have more deer and other prey. “Bandhavgarh is definitely among the top places in the world to spot a tiger,” he affirms, “but due to the immense pressure to spot one, tourists are also preferring to frequent buffer zones, which was not the case a few years ago.
Guests on a cycling trail | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Today, tourists can plan safaris inside the park, but will not be allowed cellphones – in fact, most reserves have lockers or boxes to deposit your mobiles. Slowly, Samrat started to move away. In a few seconds, he would cross the road and disappear into the bushes…but not before turning back to glance at us. A tiger at Bandhavgarh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement He had seen us. At Bandhavgarh, a board with a tiger near the exit gate out reads, “Don’t be disappointed if you do not see me. Samrat translates to ‘king’ in Hindi and this massive, male Bengal tiger strolls the Tala and Khitauli zones of the park with carefree abandon. including the India pitta and crested serpent eagle, the tiger remains the focus While Bandhavgarh boasts considerable variety in flora and fauna. “Elephants were employed to spot tigers, and one elephant would be parked at that place. Tourists who were willing to pay a supplement would climb on the elephant to get a glimpse of the tiger. Such ‘tiger shows’ were ultimately banned by the government. A grand sight We head inside the jungle through Tala Zone, a place that houses more than a dozen caves, some of them filled with bats. Subsequently, it became the hunting ground for kings. Maharaja Marthand Singh of Rewa is a man often credited with establishment and conservation of the National Park in the Sixties. We’ve had cases of tourists trying to take selfies with the tiger as well. If you avoid the phone, you will enjoy sighting the tigers. The writer was in Bandhavgarh on invitation from Pugdundee Safaris
Because, I have seen you. Because this option was available,” he explains, there was no pressure to sight the tiger back then,. Because now, the focus is more on capturing footage and photos, i hope we can bring back those times following this ban.
Samrat is one of the 100-plus tigers for whom the muddy lanes of Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh is home. We are driving slowly along the muddy lanes of Bandhavgarh, declared a tiger reserve in the year 1993 after being a National Park for a few decades. The state – Madhya Pradesh – itself leads India’s tiger census, with more than 780 tigers spread across its wildlife reserves. It is home to 164 tigers, according to the last population census, out of which 35 tigers are accessible to tourists in core and buffer zones. Locals believe that the fort here is more than 1000 years old, attached with a story that Lord Rama built it for his brother Lakshman – thus earning the place the name ‘Bandhavgarh’ (fort for the brother). This is following a Supreme Court ruling in early 2026, aimed at responsible wildlife tourism and less stress for the animals.
In that moment when the world seemed to come to a startling halt, someone shouted, “Camera…picture”, after which we came to our senses, to reach to the visual instruments to capture the moment. “Samrat was my first sighting here, so he is special,” Viswajit Singh Solanki, a tour guide tells me about this 8-year-old tiger, “He lives on the hills and is quite elusive. The resort’s lounge area | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Manav recalls a time in Bandhavgarh a couple of decades ago when, during the pre mobile-phone era, “tiger shows” used to be a popular concept. “Today, with the advent of technology and artificial intelligence, we need to find ways to implement responsible tiger tourism,” he adds. “In the past, the focus was on observing the beauty and grandeur of the tiger,” recalls Viswajit, “Tourists used to spend time focussing on every little detail, including its stripes and injury marks.
