Wildlife journeys across India

Wildlife travel in India is about repetition and patience. Central India is the heartland: Bandhavgarh's Tala zone packs a high density of tigers into sal forest and cliffs, Kanha's meadows are the last stronghold of the hard-ground barasingha, and Pench, the country behind Kipling's stories, is gentler on both the eye and the crowds. Ranthambore adds ruins to the equation, tigers walking past the pavilions above Padam Talao. Tadoba in Maharashtra now offers some of the most reliable summer sightings anywhere as animals come to water through May. In Gujarat, Gir is the only place on earth with wild Asiatic lions, at its best in the hot months before the monsoon closure. Assam's Kaziranga carries the world's largest population of greater one-horned rhinos on grassland you can read from a jeep, with the Eastern Himalaya on the skyline. The Sundarbans swaps roads for tidal creeks and mangrove. Kerala's Periyar puts you in a boat among elephants, and Karnataka's Bandipur and Nagarhole run a Nilgiri corridor where dhole and gaur are as rewarding as any cat. Most core zones close through the monsoon from July to September. We book permits months ahead and plan three to six drives per park.