June 14, 2012. This was my first visit to any wildlife reserve in India. I am a wild life enthusiast, enthralled by documentaries shown in Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet channels. As my daughter was 10-odd days from her ninth birth anniversary, I was tempted to introduce her (and me) to some wildlife experience, and if it catches her imagination, I plan to take her with me to more wildlife reserves in the country (and around the world, if possible).
I zeroed in on Rajaji National Park (RNP), near Haridwar-Dedradun state highway, than the more popular Jim Corbett National Park. As I tried searching for more information about RNP, I across websites that plagiarized materials so heavily that it became very difficult to distinguish where the origin of the write-up was. Very few discussions/ blogs/ forums carried people's experience in Rajaji National Park. My notes are an effort to add more material about Rajaji National Park, and help build people's interest to visit the less explored neighbor to Jim Corbett National Park.
It was peak of a very miserable summer season, when we entered Rajaji National Park. The park is open to from 15 November to 15 June. Entry by visitors between 6:30 AM to 9:30 AM and then from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM. They operate it like clock work, not a day more or less, not a minute before or later. We were lucky to be there on the penultimate day (June 14). We entered the park at 2:30 PM through Motichur gate, paid Rs. 150 per adult (its Rs. 600 per person for non-Indians) and another Rs. 500 for the SUV (no differential princing for non-Indians).
The RNP has seven entry points - Chilla, Ranipur and Motichur from Haridwar side, Kunngo from Rishikesh side, Cherring Cross on Haridwar - Dehradun highway, Mohand and Ramgarh on Dehradun-Delhi Highway side. We, while returning with Mr. Narendra - the forest guard, came to know that Chilla has high probability of tiger sighting in the park and also suggested that we should consider staying in the guest house for a couple of days and prefer going out with forest staff at dawn or at dusk for best time for wildlife sighting.
As the sun was hot and scorching, not many wild animals came out for the dense foilage. We went on the oft taken forest roads and saw oft seen animals (spotted dears, sambars, etc.) and some birds (nightjars mostly). I then decided to wait for the dusk and settled a little away from a waterhole near an anti-poaching guard house. The guards there informed us that herds of elephant come to the waterhole for quenching their thirst. I set up my camera and waited patiently. In the 2-3 hours that I spent sitting there, I had some amazing experience of sighting birds, animals and wildlife that I did not expect to see. The canopy of green trees across the waterhole was beautiful, energizing and mysterious! We also saw Imperial Green Pigeon, a jackal with fresh catch of wild rabbit, many, many spotter deers (Chitals), spotted doe with her fawn, red wattled lapwing's eggs, a herd of elephants with two newborns (hardly a fortnight old!) and lots of green foliage (from my vantage point). For more pics and notes on RNP...visit my pictory on facebook.
I zeroed in on Rajaji National Park (RNP), near Haridwar-Dedradun state highway, than the more popular Jim Corbett National Park. As I tried searching for more information about RNP, I across websites that plagiarized materials so heavily that it became very difficult to distinguish where the origin of the write-up was. Very few discussions/ blogs/ forums carried people's experience in Rajaji National Park. My notes are an effort to add more material about Rajaji National Park, and help build people's interest to visit the less explored neighbor to Jim Corbett National Park.
It was peak of a very miserable summer season, when we entered Rajaji National Park. The park is open to from 15 November to 15 June. Entry by visitors between 6:30 AM to 9:30 AM and then from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM. They operate it like clock work, not a day more or less, not a minute before or later. We were lucky to be there on the penultimate day (June 14). We entered the park at 2:30 PM through Motichur gate, paid Rs. 150 per adult (its Rs. 600 per person for non-Indians) and another Rs. 500 for the SUV (no differential princing for non-Indians).
As the sun was hot and scorching, not many wild animals came out for the dense foilage. We went on the oft taken forest roads and saw oft seen animals (spotted dears, sambars, etc.) and some birds (nightjars mostly). I then decided to wait for the dusk and settled a little away from a waterhole near an anti-poaching guard house. The guards there informed us that herds of elephant come to the waterhole for quenching their thirst. I set up my camera and waited patiently. In the 2-3 hours that I spent sitting there, I had some amazing experience of sighting birds, animals and wildlife that I did not expect to see. The canopy of green trees across the waterhole was beautiful, energizing and mysterious! We also saw Imperial Green Pigeon, a jackal with fresh catch of wild rabbit, many, many spotter deers (Chitals), spotted doe with her fawn, red wattled lapwing's eggs, a herd of elephants with two newborns (hardly a fortnight old!) and lots of green foliage (from my vantage point). For more pics and notes on RNP...visit my pictory on facebook.
We returned to Dehradun, carrying wonderful memories of a beautiful place called the Rajaji National Park and also wiser...to stay in the forest reserves' guest house in future and avoid day trips.
Nice Article! Thanks for sharing with us.
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