Betla National Park

Betla lies at the western edge of the Chota Nagpur plateau in Latehar district, a mixed forest of sal, bamboo and open grassland on undulating ground between the North Koel and Auranga rivers. It became a national park in 1986 within the Palamau Tiger Reserve, which was declared in 1974 as one of the nine original reserves under Project Tiger. Its place in wildlife history is older still: in 1932 the British forester J.

W. Nicholson conducted here what is generally reckoned the first tiger census anywhere, counting animals by their pugmarks. Tigers are scarce now, but a morning drive through Betla reliably turns up herds of chital and sambar in the grasslands, gaur at the water bodies, langur troops crashing through the sal, and, at the right season, wild elephants that move in from Chhattisgarh.

Sunrise and late afternoon are the drives; between them there are two forts to explore, the older Chero fort on the flat ground above the Auranga and the newer one that Medini Ray raised on the hill behind it in the seventeenth century, both gradually being taken back by the forest, with carved gateways still standing among the roots. Kamaldah lake with its lotus cover and the small Mirchaiya Falls fill the gaps. The reserve is remote and infrastructure is basic, which is a large part of why it feels like forest rather than a queue of jeeps.