At Madhya Pradesh tiger reserves, we can undertake the shared jeep safaris. Some people refer it group safari also in which visitors from different sources, do the jungle safari in same vehicle. This mode of safari is available in all popular tiger reserves like Bandhavgarh, Kanha tiger reserve, Pench tiger reserve and like to be introduced in Panna tiger reserve and Sanjay Dubri tiger reserve. Here park management offers safari permits on per seat basis so that low budget visitors can also undertake the jeep safaris at various popular core zones. It also ensures that more visitors can enjoy the jungle safaris despite of limited vehicle entry condition. At Madhya Pradesh, shared jungle safari can be undertake by 2 ways. One is to book per seat on safari jeeps and second option is to book your seat on open bus called Canter vehicle. Jeep have seating capacity of 06 visitors where as a Canter vehicle have seating capacity of 18 visitors. In both the modes, safari guides and drivers are also allocated so that tourists can not only undertake the safari ride but also get valuable information from safari guide. One important point we have note that both shared jeep safari and canter safari is operated for core zones only which means for buffer zone safaris, both the options are unavailable for visitors, only non-sharing jeep safaris are operated.
It is a popular mode of jungle safari option. Here a safari 4x4 wheel driven jeep is used for exploring the forest. It is open to sky and have 2 passenger sitting row which accommodated 3 person per row thus total 06 visitors can sit in this vehicle. It can be booked online from any corner of the world thus more popular among visitors. Due to this online booking facility, we have advantage to confirm our safari permit booking in advance to remain assured of safari opportunity.
In this mode a 18-seater open bus is used for jungle safari drive. Here total 18 visitors can sit together, along with safari guides and vehicle driver. It is also popular among low budget and late trip planners. Here no online booking facility is available thus it can be booked on the spot basis. Thus a good hope for safari booking for those visitors who reaches tiger reserve without any prior safari booking and search for safari on current basis. It is open bus thus allows good opportunity for birding at forest trees and sky.
Let's understand the difference between canter safari and shared jeep safari option.
| Title | Shared Jeep Safari | Canter Safari |
| Pricing | Shared jeep safari is mostly proves slightly more costlier than canter safari. Here price varies as per number of co-visitors. | Canter safari per person cost remains same, despite of any change in number of co-visitors thus proves more economical. |
| Price Stability | Here per person cost varies as per number of safari visitors. | Here per person remain fixed, despite of change in number of visitors. |
| Vehicle type | Shared jeep safari vehicle is small and mostly a petrol jeep is used. | Due to use of large open bus, these vehicle are mostly diesel engine driven. |
| Vehicle engine sound challenge | Jeep safaris are mostly silent, produced less engine sound thus better sighting experience. | Due to diesel engine use, these vehicle produces more sound thus reduced animal sighting experience. |
| Advance booking | It can be booked or reserved in advance. | It can't be booked in advance. On the spot booking is only option. |
| Online booking provision | Shared jeep safari permits can be booked online, from any corner of the world. | Here seat permits can be booked only offline, from ticket counter. |
| Safari success | Jeep is a small vehicle powered with 4x4 wheel driven option thus access geographically challenged places, take sharp turns, moves swiftly through bushes trails thus offers better tiger sighting probability. Popular among photographers. | Due to large vehicle size and no option of 4x4 wheel power, it has limited accessibility and can't move swiftly in forest, mostly moves one way without quick u-turn thus tiger sighting probability will be less. |
| Personalization | Due to maximum 06 visitor capacity, here interaction with guide is better thus we feels more personalized than canter safari. | Due to large vehicle, here communication between guide and tourist is very limited. Mostly one-way communication thus here we feel slightly dis-connected or overlooked. |
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