| Topic | Short Description |
| Safari Season | October to June for Core zones & throughout year for Buffer zones |
| Best time to visit | November to May |
| Nearest Airport | Khajuraho (40kms), Jabalpur (250kms) |
| Nearby Railway Stations | Satna (90kms), Katni (120kms), Jhansi Station(220kms) |
| Best time for Tiger | February to May months |
| When to plan | 4 Months in advance |
| Safari options | Open Jeep & Canters |
| Core zones | Madla zone, Hinouta zone, Akola Core |
| Buffer zones | Akola zone, Jhinna zone |
Panna National Park is part of Panna tiger reserve of India. It was declared a tiger reserve in 1994 as the 22nd tiger reserve of India and fifth in Madhya Pradesh state. The park is situated in Panna and Chhatarpur districts of Indian central state Madhya Pradesh. This forest region is spread over Bundelkhand region on Vindhya range. It is the same range on which Bandhavgarh tiger reserve forest is spread. Vindhya range in Central India, moves from south-west to north-east direction, touching the starting point of Aravali range. Panna forest is also called Emerald forest of Central India and is known worldwide for its healthy population of leopards, sloth bears, tigers, deers, antelope, vultures, wolf, chinkara, cheetal and lots more. This region is substantially noticing attention for its diamond industry. Simple meaning of Panna is Emerald stone. thus it is often referred as Emerald forest of Central India. Being close to Khajuraho that is only 25 km away to the park, it can be very well visited clubbed with Khajuraho temple tour and enhance the tour experience. It has an area of 542.67 km2 (209.53 sq mi) which is vast enough to provide better comfort for wild species. The park has got the Award of Excellence in 2007 as the best maintained national park of India by the Ministry of Tourism of India, as it is notable that by 2009, forest department accomplished the aim to kick off poaching to the park. The connectivity of Panna Tiger Reserve with the other places and the condition of the roads are excellent, hence tourists from either abroad or the country feels this place a worth to visit. Though Tiger sightseeing are not very common here, one needs to be patients, getting glimpse of this big wild cat. The vegetation of this region is mixed with uneven terrain with scrubby vegetation and grass, rocky landscape gathered along with hundreds verities of trees and shrubs. One can explore Indian species of crocodiles like mugger and long snout gharial in the Ken River that flows from here toward the north harbors.
In past, Panna National Park foresst was private hunting preserve of erstwhile rulers of Panna, Chhatarpur & Bijawar states. It is part of Bundelkhand region, which is a rocky & arid region thus many historical buildings can be seen in this region. In 1975, Gangau wildlife sanctuary was created by comprising North & South Panna forest division. In year 1978, Gangau sanctuary was extended by inclusion of Chhatarpur Forest Division. Later in year 1981 Panna National Park was declared with inclusion of Gangau sanctuary with areas of Chhatarpur division. Panna National Park is a 22nd Tiger reserve of India and fifth in Indian central state of Madhya Pradesh, once this land was a private hunting land of the royal family of Panna until India’s independence, and then the park was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1981. 0n 1994 this National park was upgraded into a Tiger Reserve with inclusion of some other wildlife sanctuary like Gangau WLS, Panna National Park & Ken Gharial wildlife sanctuary. Pandav caves in Panna is mentioned in the great epic of Hindus ‘Mahabharata’ that Pandavas spent a long time of their exile in this forest of Panna. In March 2009 two female tigers were brought here from Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha National Park, however, when last male tiger disappeared, a committee took place to observe the reason of disappearance. Horrible result came out when in June 2009 it was officially announced that the Reserve, where had over 40 tigers six years ago, has no tiger left except to only two tigresses arrived here a while ago. In an instant being worried about of this debacle, Ministry of Environment and Forest taken a decision in June 2009, to relocate two tigers and two tigresses to the reserve. A young tiger male was moved from Pench Tiger Reserve but strayed out of the park shortly thereafter; in November 2009 It was brought back to the park about a month later. A tigress, translocated from Bandhavgarh National Park, gave birth to three cubs in April 2010. The second tigress, translocated from Kanha National Park gave birth to two cubs several months later. A third tigress was translocated to Panna from Kanha in March 2011. This re-introduction of tigers in Panna forest gave surprising result with consistent increase in tiger population in this tiger reserve. It is the result of these translocations that today Panna national park have healthy tiger population and thus tiger sighting index of Panna national park has increased. Almost daily tiger sighting information comes from safari guides which resulted into increase in tourism at this national park.
Reaching Panna National Park is no tough task, there is several ways to get into this place, the conditions of the Roads which connects other major places to this Park, are very good. Here are three common ways to reach Panna National Park :-
| Through Airports | Through Railway Stations | Through Destinations |
| Khajuraho Airport = 28 km / 30 min | Khajuraho Railway Station = 25 km / 30 min | Khajuraho = 30 km / 40 min |
| Jabalpur Airport = 250 km / 05:00 hr | Satna Railway Station = 90 km / 02:00 hr | Orchha = 180 km / 03:30 hr |
| Gwalior Airport = 300 km / 06:00 hr | Jhansi Railway Station = 190 km / 03:45 hr | Bandhavgarh NP = 220 km / 05:00 hr |
For visiting Panna national park, tourists mostly arrives at Satna railway station or Khajuraho airport/railway station. In addition to this, during tour, many tourists reaches Panna national park from Bandhavgarh, Jabalpur, Jhansi, Orchha, Kundalpur, Chitrakoot, Lucknow, Kanpur etc. We offer car rental service for visiting Panna national park. Our taxi service is running in complete Central India. Our Panna car rental service offers taxi transfers from Panna to Khajuraho, Panna to Bandhavgarh, Jhansi to Panna national park, Orchha to Panna, Satna to Panna national park etc.
Just like other national parks of state, management of Panna National Park is also under Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh so safari rules are almost same as in Kanha national park & Bandhavgarh. Panna National Park is open (core zones) for visitors from 01-October to 30-June (dates may get changed by Forest Department). Being less crowded, route system and zone restrictions are not applicable here. It means while doing Panna jungle safari, tourists can move around any place, inside park without any worry to observe route system as we do in Bandhavgarh. It is possible to enter from one entrance gate and exit from other safari gate like if we enter from Hinota gate, then we may take exit from Madla safari gate. Here safari tickets are easily available on online and current basis. Their is no tough fight for getting safari tickets as less number of tourists are reaching this tiger reserve. Here two rounds of Jungle safaris are offered per day, one in morning & second one in late afternoon till evening. Night safari is possible in buffer zone. Like Kanha - Bandhavgarh national parks here we canter safari is still not available thus all the safaris are done on open jeep only. On every Wednesday, park remain closed for evening safari round. For doing jungle safari, all the visitors are mandatory to carry their original ID documents. For foreigner tourists, his/her active Passport is the only ID document. Panna National Park safari booking can be done online as well as from booking counter. While doing jungle safari, one can also have a chance to go for boating in Ken river for spotting long snouted gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) and other aquatic species. Jungle safari charges includes Entrance Ticket, Guide Fee & Vehicle Fee. Maximum 06 passengers are allowed to do safari in a single vehicle (excluding guide & driver). It is a scenic forest with golden grasslands. It is very nice for landscape photography. This forest is divided into plateaues like first plateau, second plateau and third plateau. We can explore first and second plateau forest only and third plateau is restricted for tourists. Presence of Ken river and deep gorges makes this forest different from other popular national parks of Central India. In addition to this, tourists have option to visit Pandav fall and undertake unique "Walk with Pardhis".
Here in Panna National Park, safari timing is basically begins 30 minutes before sunrise in Morning round duration is more than of Evening safari. As sunrise and sunset timing varies with season thus accordingly safari timings also changes with season. Here we have share safari timing as per our past experiences. Jungle safari timings are not permanent and changes as per change in sunrise and sunset timings. Thus given table is for limited period and you will find that with change in season, safari timing also get changed.
| Duration | Morning Safari | Evening Safari |
| October | 06:00 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:00 Hrs |
| November | 06:15 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:45 Hrs |
| December | 06:30 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:30 Hrs |
| January | 06:45 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:45 Hrs |
| February | 06:30 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:15 Hrs |
| March | 06:15 - 11:30 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:45 Hrs |
| April | 05:45 - 11:30 Hrs | 16:00 - 18:45 Hrs |
| May | 05:30 - 11:30 Hrs | 16:00 - 18:50 Hrs |
| June | 05:30 - 11:30 Hrs | 16:00 - 19:00 Hrs |
Forest of Panna National Park lies on Vindhya ranges in which Bandhavgarh national park forest area is also covered. Here forest are dense with vast grasslands on plateau with some scenic waterfalls. In mammals, this plateau top forest is popular for its tigers, leopards, sloth bear, sambar, chinkara sighting. Forest is much more scenic than Bandhavgarh tiger reserve and despite of being on same mountain range, vegetation is different. With re-introduction of tigers, Panna tiger reserve in on the track to revive its glory and justification to be called as genuine Tiger Reserve. New generation of Tigers is now flourishing successfully in forest and population is consistently increasing. In addition to forest area, one amazing adventure comes with river Ken which is passes through the Panna tiger reserve; it surrounds along greeneries and bird life also Indian species of crocodiles like mugger and long snout gharial in the Ken River that flows from here toward the north harbors. This river is a lifeline of the park as most of visitors enjoys boat ride along the course of the River, it is a best way to explore some aquatic life while floating over the water in the Park, the chances getting high of spotting Eurasian Eagle Owls who used to nest on river islands, Black Ibises basking, and scary marshy muggers (crocodiles) usually appears at the wet or dry bank of the River, sometimes half submerged. Many varieties of reptiles like pythons, king cobras are also present in the park to have a glance over them. Vultures sighting track record of this park is very good. We can identify almost 06 different species of vultures here. By going through this information, we can confidently say that Panna National Park offer variety in wildlife from mammals, birds to reptiles.
While doing the jungle safari in Panna Tiger Reserve, we can identify more than 22 distinguished mammal species. Tiger (Panthera tigris) is the top carnivore in the reserve with its nearest competitor Leopard (Panthera pardus). If we go by the history of Panna, it was under Bundela rulers and was a princely state. Forest was a private hunting reserve where hunting was taken as a sports with permission to kill 10 ft. or more long tigers. Killing of breeding females from carnivore & herbivores are prohibited by the order to State. Here popular forest ranges are Madla & Hinouta where animal distribution is good. These are the names of popular core zone safari entry gate, at considerable distance from each other. After translocation, tiger are mainly seen in Hinouta region where under rocky terrains they have good place to take shelter and survive. Here in Panna although tiger sighting is not good but one can enjoy good sighting of Sloth bear, Leopard(Panthera pardus), Chinkara(Gazella gazella), Nilgai (Blue bull), Hyena, Jackal etc. Hilly terrains and rocky surroundings offers good shelter and conditions for sloth beer. If we travel to Bhairon ghat, Sukwaha ghat and few more sites, we will find Rhesus monkey (Macaca multta). Wild Cat sighting is good in Bhadar & Badgadi stretch of Hinouta range and other wooden areas of park. Like Kanha National Park Indian Gaurs & Barasingha are not found in this forest areas. Earlier Black bucks are present in Panna forest but not seen since many years. While one can easily find out Indian deers, Chital and Chowsingha and chances even grow to spot dotted Sambar in wooden areas, Nilgai and Chinkara can be seen in most open areas in the grasslands, especially on the periphery. Here population of Nilgai & Sambhar is very good in compare to any other mammal species.
In Panna National Park there is more than 200 species of bird reported so far. This is also a host for a number of migratory birds during the winter season. Vulture sighting in Panna National Park is also great. Here one can notify about 06 rare species of vultures: Long Billed Vulture (Gyps indicus), White Backed Vulture (Gyps africanus), Asian King Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), Himalayan Griffon Vulture (Gyps himalayensis), Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), Eurasian Vulture (Aegypius monachus). Hilly & rocky terrains of Panna forest are more suitable for vultures to make nests. In addition to this, in winters (Nov-Jan) many migratory birds visits Panna forest and spend some times here. Important Panna national park birds are: Paradise Flycatcher, Pond Heron, White-necked Stork, Honey Buzzard, Slaty-headed Parakeet, Night Jar, Peafowls, Spotted Doves, Blossom-headed Parakeet, Bare-headed Goose, Lark, Pipit, Minivets, Partridges, Quails, Crested Serpent Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Lesser Adjutant, Black drongo, Pied Myna, Bulbul, Indian Baya weaver, Crow Pheasants, Cuckoo, Kingfishers, Indian Roller, Brown Fish Owl etc. Presence of Ken river, ensures water availability, throughout the year.
The climate of the Panna National Park is tropical and in summer it hikes at the most like 41 °C. In union with shallow Vindhyan soils has given rise to dry Teak and dry mixed forest. The dominating vegetation type is miscellaneous dry deciduous forest inter spread with grassland areas. Other major forest types are reveries, open grasslands, open woodlands with tall grasses and thorny woodlands. The characteristic floral species of this area include tree species such as Tectona grandis, Diospyros melanoxylon, Madhuca Indica (Mahua), Buchnania latifolia, Anogeissus latifolia, Anogeissus pendula, Lannea coromandelica, Bosswelia serrata etc.
Park can be visited either in winter or in summer and the remaining time during the rainy season park remains closed due to heavy rain and no accessibility in the park.If you wish to visit the Park in the winters, which starts from mid of October and lasts till mid of February, it is recommend that winter can be sever during December to January as mercury dips below 5 °C, so getting a mild experience of the weather one should visit the park between mid of October to mid of December and between February to march. During February to March mercury hang around 32 °C to 35 °C which considered a best temperature time, as there is clear sky, better sighting of wild animals and mild breeze makes you notice it.
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Months
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Jun
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Jul
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Aug
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Sep
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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Minimum (°C)
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04
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12
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18
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24
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32
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32
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25
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24
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22
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20
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18
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08
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Maximum(°C)
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18
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30
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36
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40
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45
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42
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36
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38
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36
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38
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25
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18
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If you dare enough to visit Panna National Park in the summers so this can be little unpleasant due to being excessive hot, yet here is more chances to spot wild being and probability goes up to spotting tiger as water sources being dry up and other remaining sources like little ponds, lakes or Ken river attracts tiger, Chital and many other species to vent their thirstiness up. The mercury remains so flared in the month of May and June with the temperature of around 41 °C to 45 °C.
Here monsoon rain starts from July and lasts till October, during this time river, lakes, small canals show their best flow volume of rainy water and some times over-flow also. During monsoon season, park remain closed as tracks inside park were not good enough to drive. Being close to evergreen site Khajuraho, it can be visited throughout the season when it is open for visitors. Best time to visit Panna National Park is from November to April during which climate remain good so that tourists can enjoy the Panna jungle safaris and boating in Ken river. Pandav cave is another attraction for visitors which remain open throughout the year for visitors and can be visited separately from jungle safari. During summers from April to June, rocky surroundings makes the region hot with severe heat waves which poses challenge but evening boating in Ken river makes a healing effect. Jungle safari with boating makes a good combination for tourists visiting Panna National Park. It can also be taken a excursion tour to Khajuraho or while staying in resort at Panna National Park, one can take excursion tour to Khajuraho.
9202337070
9202337070