One-hundred-and-fifty years after Rudyard Kipling wrote the Jungle Book, Taj Safaris created a Mowgli Trail that recreates Kipling’s India. As part of the trail, visitors go on a safari, visit the local village and share a meal with the locals, and are part of a luxurious experience that involves lying in a bubble-filled tub and staring out into the wilderness as spotted deer come by and drink from the local river. The idea behind Taj Safaris is a culmination of a partnership between the Taj Group and andBeyond, a luxury South African-based safari service provider.
The Mowgli Trails are only offered in two Taj Safari Properties – the Banjar Tola at Kanha National Park and Baghvan at Pench. These two national parks are connected through a thick dense forest cver, and according to experts, are where Kipling based his famous series of short stories.
Speaking on the idea behind organising the Mowgli Trails, Neel Gogate, a lodge manager at Taj Safaris, said that the Taj Safaris have been around since 2008. “We have five properties – four in Madhya Pradesh (Bandavgarh, Pench, Kanha and Panna) and one that recently opened in Nepal. The properties have been a hit amongst customers, but we realised that we needed to do something different to make a safari more interesting and came up with the idea of organising the Mowgli Trails at Pench and Kanna. It’s perfect timing, given that it has been 150 years since Kipling wrote the book. Also, the movie has released, which adds to the fun,” he said.
The road to Kanha
Kanha is famous for tigers. I have previously visited tiger sanctuaries, but have never been able to spot one. So I went without expectations, though in secret I wished that I could see the magnificent beast – even if it was for a few seconds.
Kanha National Park is a five and a half hour road trip from Nagpur airport. The car passes through the dry foliage in Vidarbha and slowly the topography changes as you enter Madhya Pradesh. From a light brown, you start seeing a variety of greens, even though the outside temperature during the day is 42 degrees celsius. Fortunately, I was in an air-conditioned vehicle and didn’t feel the heat, although common sense dictated that I drink water at regular intervals, so that I didn’t get dehydrated.
The overall drive was worth it. Once we entered the Banjar Tola property, we turned towards East Camp. The property is part of the jungle and has a rough terrain drive up to the main lobby area. We couldn’t see any animals because of the heat outside and assumed that they were in a cooler part of the forest.
Then the vehicle turned and we saw a group of people standing in line and waving at me and my fellow travellers. It looked like a huge welcoming committee and it was a sweet gesture. When I later enquired the reason behind the group waving (this wasn’t the first time they did it during the course of the three-day trip), Neel told me that since Taj had teamed up with South African luxury safari group AndBeyond, the staff had been trained in South Africa for a brief period. “This type of welcoming is something AndBeyond always does and they told us that it personalises a visit,” he explained.
A room like no other
There are luxury rooms, but then Taj Safaris gives you a luxury tent. You walk into a room that has rustic wooden flooring. The bed is a queen-sized one and gives you a direct view into the jungle (see picture). Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you wake up to spotted deer drinking water from the Banjar Tola River.
If you walk into the bathroom, it’s as big as the room! Truth be told, it’s more of a dressing area and bathroom in the same area. There is a tub and a separate shower system, which makes you feel like Harry Potter when he entered the Prefects bathroom in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the first time. In fact, the tub was a blessing. On my second day, the outside temperature was so hot that even an air-conditioning system didn’t help cool the room down and made it difficult for me to take an afternoon nap. So I did jugaad. I filled the tub up with cold water, added some body wash to form a thick layer of bubbles and entered the tub and took a half hour nap. I believe that my skin, which was burning from the intense heat, cooled down for a few hours after that.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle…
Our day began at 4.30 am. We were at the lobby by 5.00 am and out into the forest by 5.15. Forest officials have made only 20 per cent of all forests in India accessible to humans. The remaining 80 per cent falls into restricted zone and whoever – guides or tourists – flouts these rules are immediately given a life ban. This is because forest officials record your identity cards before you enter the jungle, so it’s mandatory you carry your passport (especially if you’re a foreign tourist), PAN card, Aadhar card or drivers licence with you in case you visit the jungle.
The forest is open to public at 6 am and vehicles are supposed to leave the forest area by 11 am, according to Srinidhi, Narayan and Nikita, the naturalists who were travelling with us. “We have to be at the gates early, so that we can be the first to get in,” he explained, but we weren’t so lucky. We were seventh in line with a number of Maruti Gypsies ahead of us.
As soon as the gates opened, we saw the vehicles zoom into the forest, but Narayan was a little cautious. “We’re not allowed to exceed 20 km/h. Not everybody follows this rule because everyone wants to spot a tiger,” he explained. Narayan, however, reassured us saying that there had been several tiger spotting over the course of the month. “That does not mean you should not see the other animals,” he teased.
We started off spotting a group of langurs. These monkeys, unlike their counterparts in North India, are less aggressive and tend to keep their distance from humans. However, that did not stop them from sitting on trees and posing for the cameras. The infants, however, tend to be more curious and are usually held by their mothers so that they don’t get run over by vehicles.
We also saw several spotted deer – most of whom ignored us because they were used to vehicles. The deer spent time grazing in the Kanha meadows or drinking from a waterhole. Sometimes, when we stopped in excitement, the animal would think we were predators and run away before we managed to get any photographs. However, when I look back at the images, I’m pretty happy with what I got.
The third animal we spotted was the gaur or Indian bison. We saw a mother and its calf and didn’t dare to go too close in case it charged at us. Nikita, one of the naturalists, then showed us a video of a tiger stalking a bison and the bison charging at the tiger, forcing it to retreat. “It’s capable of toppling over a SUV,” added Srinidhi, the third naturalist who was with us.
Through the course of the safari, we spotted several other birds including peacocks who were trying to impress peahens, pea fowls who kept running across the dirt track to evade getting run over, a variety of birds including eagles, the Indian roller, different species of vultures, a mongoose that ran into a burrow and even two jackals.
In all honesty, I was happy because this was the most I had seen during any jungle trip. Even if I didn’t spot a tiger, I knew that this was a well-spent trip.
Then Narayan stopped the car and pointed at fresh dung and said that the tiger was close. “Going by the freshness, the tiger would have been here 10 minutes ago and has marked its territory,” he explained and then pointed at the giant pugmark, which suggested that the tiger was a male.
We then rushed to search for the beast. Vehicles came and went with guides and drivers saying someone else spotted it, but they had the same disappointed expression suggesting that the tiger had eluded them all.
Another naturalist, Varun then came in his vehicle by our side and said that he heard a distress call from a deer. We stopped and waited in silence and heard another cry and even for someone who had not spent so much time in the jungle, I knew that it was a cry of fear.
And then Narayan screamed, “Tiger!”
The tiger knew she was being followed by a number of jeeps, but moved at its own pace. She was not too slow, but not too fast. There was lazy elegance about her walk. She didn’t bother to stop and pose. It was more like, “I’m moving. If you want a picture, take it now.” Some vehicles tried accelerating for passengers to get a better view, but then she turned around, glared at the driver for a few seconds and then walked into the bushes and left all of us with an adrenaline rush.
And then, I knew that even if I spotted anything else, it would not matter.
Life beyond the jungle
We returned to the resort where its manager Neel Gogate, a former forest officer, who joined the Taj group nine years ago, congratulated us on our success. He then asked us to freshen up and get ready to go to a village and hang out with the locals at lunchtime.
The village is a 10-minute drive from the resort and lunch was served in a mud hut. Lunch comprised dal batti, a spring onion dish, a dal, a chicken dish, a smoked surmai and an atta kheer. Although the food was delicious, it was unwise to have dal batti on a summer’s day, which resulted in me ending up with a stomach upset on the day I came back to Mumbai.
The overall experience
Taj Safaris is a luxury experience, which means an individual pays Rs 50,000 per person per night in a tent. This means that you spend Rs 1,00,000 if two people share a room. If I could afford the trip, I would definitely do it again, but I strongly recommend it to anyone who has that kind of money.
Best time to visit
Between November and March (although people visit in April and May as well, despite the heat)
(An edited version of this had appeared in DNA on April 17. This is the original text that I wrote)
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