Nagzira-Kipling`s Jungle Book comes to life.

1. From Nagpur go east along the NH6(Bombay- Calcutta highway) for about 100 km and turn left at the crowded town of Sakoli .A further drive of of 20km or so along a busy narrow road, brings one abruptly to the gate of the Nagzira wls.The small shanty tea shops and restaurants does not prepare one for the exotic forest beyond.
2. A further drive of 12 km through dense forests brings one to the forest rest house complex.There are some very badly maintained dilapidated cottage for the booking. Also available are two loghut rooms of slightly better quality.All these are available for booking online.A better option would be to stay at one of the few private safari lodges outside the sanctuary.There is a canteen ,in the complex ,run by a private contractor, which provides basic hot Indian food.

3. Nagzira comprises about 116sq km of unbelievably dense sub tropical forest of deciduous trees ,shrubs,and grass It has innumerable lakes and water bodies.What was fascinating were tall trees thick with creepers barely allowing the sunlight to filter through .One can almost imagine Mowgli of jungle book fame swinging down through the trees on one of the vines , followed on foot by his beloved Baloo the bear.And somewhere in the thick undergrowth hidden from sight the palpable menace of Sher khan the tiger
4. Nagzira boasts of seven tigers,leopards slothbears,dhole civets,boars,pangolins ,nilgai ,gaurs sambhars,chital, chausinga,mousedeer etc.....The bird species includes a variety of raptors probably attracted by the fish in the waterbodies.I saw this Grey headed fish eagle perched high on the stump of a tree stuck by lightining, like a lone sentinel of the sky.
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Chital making good use of a young sapling.He busily see-saws himself across the woody stem to rid himself of some clinging insects.

This particular sambhar seems to have enough of grazing, and was ready to call it a day when we disturbed him.

We interrupted his evening supper.One can almost feel his kingly displeasure.

The squrirmed around defeacating,vomiting,sniffing,grunting for nearly five minutes before they followed each other into the thick jungles below and out of sight .

This is one curious Sambhar in Nagzira.Very late in the evening as can be seen from the image

Bits of hair, bone and tough indigestible fibres is regularly vomited as routinely as defeacating.

This particular Dhole was busy sniffing the huge beetle near him.Note the white patch on his front paw.

Nice account of your visit to Nagzira WLS. Nice sightings. The white patch on the leg of the Dhole is quite intersting :-). Is the place crowded with lot of tourists? Thanks for sharing the details.

It is a fine wilderness area. I am told tourists visit regularly from Mumbai. Good to know that you sighted dholes and its prey. Did you visit it recently in the winter?

Nice.Sneak peek into beautiful landscape and the inhabitants of Nagzira WLS .
TFS
Roopak

Mridul,we usually plan our visits during the week days in order to avoid the week-end holidaymakers.While we were there there was just a couple more vehicles moving around inside on safari.When we left which was on the week-end we saw 7 to 8 vehicles entering the park.Generally a feeling of quiet solitude pervades the whole place.