Introduction

Central India region offers ideal natural habitat for various big cats of India like Jungle cat, Rusty spotted cat, Tigers, Leopards. They are mostly found at popular tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh  and its nearby forests. In addition to them, presence of  Caracal, Fishing Cat, Desert Cat has also been confirmed through various camera traps, installed at different wildlife reserves but their sighting is very rare. Safari destinations like Pench tiger reserve, Kanha tiger reserve, Bandhavgarh, Panna tiger reserve, Satpura tiger reserve etc. are well visited by tourists in both daytime safaris and night safaris. Thus these tiger reserves are well scanned and we can plan our tour plans by choosing few of them. It is possible that in coming years, some other new cat species may be added in list because many of the reserve forest areas are not well scanned like Kuno national park, Gandhi Sagar wildlife sanctuary, Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary etc. In coming years, we may add some new destinations for cat safaris.

Safari Destinations

Central India forests offers most suitable habitat for big cats thus during many survey reports, we will find that this region nestles biggest population of cat family members. This can be proved from the fact that Madhya Pradesh state have highest population of tigers and leopards, in India. Here we can explore certain destinations for our big cats photography tours.

Best time to visit

Cats in Central India, are mostly seen during day safaris. Best time to do big cat safari tours is from February to May month. During this period, we should try more jungle safari drives. This includes various means of transports like jeep safari, walking safari, boat safari etc.

Best ways to do photography

For big cat safari tours, we can mostly rely on jeep safaris as at tiger reserves, jeep safari is considered as more safe way to explore forest, when tiger and leopards are well present in such forest. We can try walking safaris in buffer zone forest. Boat safari is mostly unavailable at popular tiger reserves thus its role will be limited.

Precautions

When we do safari planning to see different cat family species then such plans will be different from tiger safaris or leopard safaris. Here we have to consider the sighting probabilities for other less popular cat species like jungle cats, rusty spotted cats. After tigers and leopards, they can be tried and seen. Sighting of Indian desert cat and fishing cat is very rare as their habitat lies in core zone forest where night safaris are not allowed. Movement of Rusty spotted cat and jungle cat has been mostly noted after sunset thus we need to make ideal combination of day time safaris and night safaris. We have to make ideal combination to explore opportunities of day and night time. Similarly we have to give due importance to walking safari also, along with jeep safaris. Here we also need to give due importance to buffer zone forests as after sunset, cats often seen actively roaming around village areas, agricultural fields.

Photography Tours

Some of the populat safari tour plans are shared below. You can check them to get some idea and may do necessary changes matching to your requirements so that you will be able to undertake a prefectly made tailormade cat safari tour.