Tigers and rhinos tours in India
| country: | India |
| departures: | This trip can be tailor made to suit your requirements between October and June |
| price: | From £1040 (11 days) excluding flights (min 4 people) or from £1200 (min 2 people). Price includes airport pick up/drop off, Delhi standard hotel (B&B), Sunderbans & Kaziranga on full board with elephant ride & all meals, all internal flights |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
This tour is a unique combination of India’s wildlife. We will be visiting Sunderbans a world Heritage site to see swimming Tigers & Kaziranga for Rhinos.
The Sunderbans are spread out over an area of 16,500sq km in the prostrate delta towards the mouth of the Ganga, and form the world’s largest estuarine forests that constitute 80% of India’s total mangrove swamps. A World Heritage Site, the Sunderbans are also amongst the richest biosphere reserves in the subcontinent. Compared to other reserves in the world, this park has the largest population of Bengal tigers.
It also abounds in salt water crocodiles, Olive Ridley turtles, Gangetic dolphins, chitals (spotted deer), fishing cats, wild boars, otters, rhesus macaques, monitor lizards, snakes, innumerable fishes, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, worms and a host of birds including kingfishers, storks, herons, Brahmin ducks, ibise, water fowl and egrets, to name only a few. The Sunderbans tiger is an adept swimmer, can survive on brackish water, and is also known to feed on fish and sea turtles.
Kaziranga is a title of a remarkable success story of conservation of the One Horned India Rhinoceros and other wildlife in the North East India. It is not only the homeland of the Great Indian One Horned Rhinoceros, but also provides shelter to a variety of wildlife. It is one of the significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological biodiversity of universal value.
The values and criteria made Kaziranga National Park get inscribed in the World Heritage Site List 1985. The Kaziranga National Park area consists of 429.93 Sq.Km. with an additional area of 429.40 Sq.Km. and situated in the two districts of Assam, namely Golaghat and Nagaon. The total area of the park within Nagaon district is 175 Sq.Km., out of which 135 Sq.Km. falls under Bagori Forest Range office and 40 Sq.Km. falls within Ghorakati Forest Range office.
This trip can be tailor-made and can be combined with Kanha National park or an extension to Agra to view Taj Mahal.
Best time to go: October - April.
The Sunderbans are spread out over an area of 16,500sq km in the prostrate delta towards the mouth of the Ganga, and form the world’s largest estuarine forests that constitute 80% of India’s total mangrove swamps. A World Heritage Site, the Sunderbans are also amongst the richest biosphere reserves in the subcontinent. Compared to other reserves in the world, this park has the largest population of Bengal tigers.
It also abounds in salt water crocodiles, Olive Ridley turtles, Gangetic dolphins, chitals (spotted deer), fishing cats, wild boars, otters, rhesus macaques, monitor lizards, snakes, innumerable fishes, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, worms and a host of birds including kingfishers, storks, herons, Brahmin ducks, ibise, water fowl and egrets, to name only a few. The Sunderbans tiger is an adept swimmer, can survive on brackish water, and is also known to feed on fish and sea turtles.
Kaziranga is a title of a remarkable success story of conservation of the One Horned India Rhinoceros and other wildlife in the North East India. It is not only the homeland of the Great Indian One Horned Rhinoceros, but also provides shelter to a variety of wildlife. It is one of the significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological biodiversity of universal value.
The values and criteria made Kaziranga National Park get inscribed in the World Heritage Site List 1985. The Kaziranga National Park area consists of 429.93 Sq.Km. with an additional area of 429.40 Sq.Km. and situated in the two districts of Assam, namely Golaghat and Nagaon. The total area of the park within Nagaon district is 175 Sq.Km., out of which 135 Sq.Km. falls under Bagori Forest Range office and 40 Sq.Km. falls within Ghorakati Forest Range office.
This trip can be tailor-made and can be combined with Kanha National park or an extension to Agra to view Taj Mahal.
Best time to go: October - April.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive Delhi at 2330 hrs. You will be met and transferred to the hotel for overnight stay on B&B. |
| Day 2: | Fly to Guwahati in the morning and transfer to Kaziranga National Park (4½ hr). In the evening tribal or Bihu dance (subject to availability) by log fire under bamboo grove along with dinner. Overnight at Wildlife Resort. |
| Day 3-4: | Game safari. Morning & evening game safari |
| Day 5: | Elephant ride in the morning, evening game safari |
| Day 6: | Drive to Guwahati to connect flight to Calcutta. Arrive in Calcutta in the Evening. Overnight stay at Hotel. |
| Day 7: | River cruise. You are met in the morning and transferred by a comfortable vehicle to the jetty at Sonakhali. The 2½ hour drive takes through the lush-green rural Bengal landscape, dotted with its picturesque villages and quaint markets. Our personal boat, the M.B. Sundari awaits you here. You cruise down the rivers Hogol, Gomor, Durgaduani, Bidya and the Gumdi. As you sip tea or coffee, our resident naturalist explains the many mysteries of the Sunderbans. On this stretch alone you can see six different types of Kingfishers! A couple of pleasant hours later you arrive at the Sunderbans Jungle Camp on the Island of Bali. Here a sumptuous lunch awaits you and after a short rest in the well-appointed cottages we take you down to Sajnekhali, to see the Mangrove Interpretation Center and return via the Sudhyanakhali |
| Day 8-9: | Full day cruise. |
| Day 10: | Bali. We take you on a tour of the island village of Bali, where you can watch local residents conducting their everyday chores-fishing, weaving and boat-making. A short cruise in country boats along the narrow canals completes the Sunderbans experience. After lunch we transfer you back to Kolkata to connect flight back to Delhi. Arrive Delhi in the evening. Overnight stay Hotel |
| Day 11: | Tour ends. Transfer to International airport |
tailor made holiday
This trip can be tailormade to create a unique holiday for your individual requirements by travel experts with intimate knowledge of the destination. It is a more luxurious trip that will suit those who enjoy immersing themselves in new cultures and environments before relaxing in comfort in some of the best and most characterful local accommodation! Quality and value are the hallmark of these trips.how this holiday makes a difference
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Environment
When we give the first orientation lecture at the time of arrival we request all our clients not to use plastic bags. Furthermore through our leaders and literature we also encourage our clients to show kindness to the social sensitivities of the destinations. When we visit any National Park we inform each and every client in advance to wear earthen color clothes, treat national parks as the learning centers and not a picnic site. Guests are asked not to use any camera flash or try to come very close to animals and to keep noise level at the minimum while talking to each other. Community Sunderbans accommodation supports a number of social development programmes. Regularly, a medical treatment camp is organised for the islanders. Book and garment banks have been installed, and an evening school was erected. Moreover, several monitoring studies have been initiated, such as on Climate Change, Lesser Cats, and Migratory Water Fowls. 18 permanent local staff cater for the guests well-being. Trained guides are available for National park excursions and villages walks, and for country boat excursions fishermen are hired from the near-by villages thus supporting the locals & the economy. In the evenings be introduced to Bonobibi, the Jungle Goddess. Dukhe Yathra, the story of a small boy being exposed to the wilderness of the Sunderbans, is a colorful spectacle performed by a group of local villagers. The tradition of this theatre play was almost lost until the Camp offered an opportunity for this valuable part of the Sunderbans' culture to revive. The Staff of the lodge in Kaziranga are all from Kaziranga, and the surrounding villages. With the combination of local knowledge and academic expertise, it now boasts of its host of in-house naturalists and field guides, who are best suited to orient travellers in protected area visitation. On this trip we support an NGO called Jagriti who are involved in giving education, accommodation, clothing and food to small children who are found begging in railway stations. An amount of £10 per person goes to this NGO. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |