Introduction

When safari starts from afternoon hours and goes till sunset, it is termed as evening safari. At some national parks, it is also called as afternoon safari drive. This safari usually starts in post lunch hours and lasts till 30 minutes after sunset. Here rules and regulations are almost similar to morning safari drive but varies in terms of safari duration. Here in Madhya Pradesh, safari duration of morning safari is longer than evening safari drives but charges are same for both the safari rounds. Thus if you want more value for money, do morning safaris but if you are not able to wake up too early or in winters you don't like to face cold waves during safari drive then you opt for evening safari drive.

Safari Activities

During the evening safari slot, different safari related activities are possible for normal tourists. These set of activities may vary from one national park to other national park, as per ground conditions. Here local tiger reserve management team decides which activities to offer and which are not possible to be offered or may suspend any ongoing safari activity as per current circumstances. Suspension duration of any safari activitiy may vary. It may be of few days or few months or for few years. 

Safari Destination	Possible Safari Activities
Kanha National Park	Jeeps safari, Nature Walk (Walking safari)
Bandhavgarh National Park	Jeep safari
Pench National Park	Jeep safari, Nature Walk
Satpura National Park	Jeep safari, Nature Walk, Boat safari
Panna National Park	Jeep safari, Boat safari
Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve	Jeep safari

How to book ?

Booking procedure for evening safari activities varies from activity to activity.

Safari Activity	Booking Procedure
Jeep Safari	It can be booked online, in advance or by visiting ticket counter nearby safari entry gate. If both the options are not possible for you then take help from your travel agent or hotel, by paying their service charges.
Nature Walk (Walking safari)	This activity is vulnerable and may get suspended or cancelled at anytime thus it can be booked only from ticket counter. Thus no advance booking and no online booking facility available till now. If you are unable to visit official booking counter then take help from your travel agent or hotel management team.
Boat Safari	It is also a vulnerable safari activity thus can be booked from booking counter only. It means no advance booking possible till now. If not possible for you to visit booking counter, then take help from your travel agent or hotel management team. Many time, in summer season, it may get suspended due to reduction in water level.

Safari Duration

Morning safari duration varies from activity to activity like duration of jeep safari is longer than duration of walking safari and boat safaris.

• Usually average duration of evening jeep safari is for 03:00 hrs where as walking safari duration varies as per interest of visitor. 
• If able to walk and enjoy the activity, you may do nature walk for 1-2 hrs or if not able to walk more, you may wind up it in 1 hrs or lesser duration. Usually tourists avoid evening nature walks due to less movements of birds and human disturbance factor.
• Boat safaris are usually offered on per hour basis. It means boat safaris can be done on per hour basis within the duration of 03:00 hrs allocated for jeep safaris activity. If you would like to do boat safari for longer duration, then book it accordingly.

Evening Safari Timings

Safari timings for evening or afternoon activities are usually starts from in post lunch session. As per variance in sunset timings, on every month, we will notice that safari timings get changed.

Safari Activity	Safari Timing
Jeep Safari	Starting time varies from 15:00 Hr to 16:00 Hr and get closed 30 minutes after sunset thus timing varies on each month. If required guest may windup safari slightly early.
Nature Walk	Starting time varies from 15:30 Hr to 16:00 Hr till sunset but if required, guest may take early exit.
Boat Safari	Boat rides are also offered as per evening jeep safari timings. In between this duration, we can take boat safari rides.

Benefits

Just like morning safaris, afternoon safari drives are also enjoyable and have their own advantage. Let's check out the benefits of evening safaris:

• Those who find it difficult to wake up early have good option to do evening safari drives. Morning safari begins at early morning hours and due to age factor, poor physical fitness or climatic conditions, many tourists find it challenging to do morning safari drive thus they use the option of evening safari.
• Those who are visiting national parks with aim to enjoy jungle life, enjoy the nature and not very keen for animal tracking or wildlife photography may choose the option of evening safari as here safari duration is short.
• Prime safari attraction of Madhya Pradesh national parks is the tiger species. They are crepuscular by nature thus become nore active in dawn and dusk hours. Similarly some nocturnal species get active in late evening hours. Thus in last phase of evening jeep safaris, we will have better chance to track the tigers at their natural habitat.
• At most of the popular tiger reserves like Kanha tiger reserve, Bandhavgarh, Pench tiger reserve, Satpura tiger reserve etc. due to high popularity, tourists often so permits booking in advance, mostly for morning safari drives, thus they get sold out. Late planners often face difficulty in getting core safari zone permits but here they have slightly better chance to find evening safari permits availa as visitors prefer morning drives. 

Challenges

Just like any activity, evening safari drives also have some challenges which may be seen as its drawbacks. Let check the possible challenges of evening safari drives:

• Safari duration of evening safari is shorter than morning safari but cost is same. If we do cost benefit analysis, short duration of aftternoon safari makes it more costly than morning safari activities.
• Birds and butterflies shows more movements on morning hours thus evening safari drive offers lesser opportunity for birds photography and butterflies photography.
• During summer season safaris, heat waves, sudden storm or shower chances are higher at evening hours, in compare to morning period thus in months like April - May, evening safaris are and may get disrupted for some duration due to dusty storm in forest area. It is a natural phenomenon.
• In compare to morning safari drives, tiger sighting chances are slightly less because tigers usually starts movements in dusk phase of the day and by that time, evening safaris get over thus this reduces the tiger sighting probability, to some extent.
• High temperature of summer season poses severe challenge for tourists to undertake evening safari. As it begins in peak afternoon period thus by that time temperature reaches its highest point of the day due to which senior citizen, visitors with small babies find it challenging and tries to avoid it.

Preparations

Jungle safari drives are unique tourism activities for tourists as we don't do it on regular basis thus we are not habitual to it. Here we need to take some precautions and do some preparations like:

• Before leaving your hotel room, always recheck your safari permit dates, zone name, mode of safari (sharing or non-sharing), reporting time etc.
• As identity of each visitor is verified thus before leaving your room, always check and make sure that all the visitors are carrying their original identity document, for verification at entry gate. For foreign nationals their active passport is the only identity documents to be considered.
• If you are going for current booking option then carry sufficient money to make required payments.
• During winter period, evening safari begins little bit early, mostly close to lunch time thus here tourists are advised to take your lunch in initial phase so that you all will get ready for evening jeep safari drive.
• If you have camera then charge your batteries, check your memory cards, clean up your lens, put your binoculars and other equipments in your bag.
• In Madhya Pradesh, as morning safari duration is longer thus after returning back to resort, guests may not be able to get breakfast thus they need to carry it with them for morning safari so that they can have it inside the national park area, at a fixed point. For this we need to inform your hotel front office team in day before evening so that they can prepare it for us in early morning and arrange the tiffin box for us.
• Carry your cap, sunglasses, dust mask, camera cover with you. Dust is a most common problem that we will face when safari vehicle moves in a fleet format, during park entry or exti time. 
• Washroom or restroom facility is not frequently available during safari drives thus try to get free at your hotel from all such requirements. During safari drives, if emergency nature call arises, inform your guide to arrange the service.

Visitors Analysis

If you are planning your safari schedule and would not be able to decide in between morning safari and afternoon safari or would like to know the difference between day safaris and night safaris then please check below given information to analyze the difference and take suitable decision.

Criteria	Afternoon / Evening Safari	Morning Safari	Night Safari
Operation	These safari starts in evening (timing varies as per months) and ends 30 minutes after sunset. Every month time changes.	These safaris starts 30 minutes before sunrise till 11:30 am. Starting time changes every month.	It starts after sunset. In winters it usually starts after ending of afternoon safari but in summers it may start before closing of afternoon safari.
Safari Zones	Here we have chance to visit both core safari zones and buffer zones	Here we have chance to visit both core safari zones and buffer safari zones	Here we will visit only buffer safari zones.
Safari Duration	Its safari duration is normally 03:00 hrs.	Morning safari duration is approx. 05:30 hr	It is approx. 03:00 hr.
Booking	Here safari permits can be booked online or from ticket counter	It can be booked online or from ticket counter.	It can be booked only from ticket counter.
Advance Booking	It can be booked in advance or current basis.	It can be booked in advance or current basis.	It can't be booked in advance, only on current basis.
Safari Types	Here we can do jeep safari, boat safari (if operated), walking safari (if operated).	Here we can do jeep safari, boat safari (if operated), walking safari (if operated).	Here we can do only jeep safari. No boat or walking safari possible.
Sighting	We have chance to see diurnal species but sometimes nocturnal species also seen at closing time.	We have chance to see diurnal species	We have chance to see nocturnal species
Tracking	Here more tracking options available like pugmark based, jungle calls, message exchange, binocular based tracking.	Here tracking options are more as due to better light conditions we track animals through pugmarks, jungle calls, message exchanging, binoculars based tracking.	Here tracking is more challenging, mainly based on jungle calls and message exchanging.
Crowding	Here more crowding possible in holiday or peak season dates.	It is more popular among visitors and its safari quota is hight thus we may face crowding problem	Here very few permits are issued thus we will not have any crowding problem.
Camera Friendliness	It is good for videography and photography.	These safaris are more camera friendly as offers good opportunity for photography and videography	It is more challenging as due to low light photography results not comes good but good for videography.
Costing	Here core zone safaris are costly in compare to buffer zone safaris.	Here core zone safaris are costly in compare to buffer zone safaris.	Here we do only buffer zone safari thus will cost less in compare to core zones.
Seasonal Benefits	It is good for winter season and afternoon increased temperature gives relief from cold waves.	It is good for summers and winters. In peak winters, morning fog poses challenge for first few hours.	It is good for summers. In winters, tourists often skips due to cold waves.

As per above shared information, we hope you will be able to judge the differences well and take suitable decision as per your requirements.