6 December 2013 / leggypeggy

Pench National Park—tops the list as our favourite

birds, Changeable hawk eagle, dholes, frogs, gaur, Gypsies, India, Indian bison, Indian rollers, jackals, landscapes, Madhya Pradesh, national parks, Pench National Park, Prayaan India Overland, wild dogs, wildlife

Our first kill—an Indian roller swooping on a frog

Pench’s beautiful scenery

In just four weeks, we’ve visited seven of India’s many animal reserves and Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh—the first one we went to—has remained unanimously at the top of our favourites list.

Named after the river that flows through the park, Pench has been a national park since 1983 and a tiger reserve area since 1992. Two years ago, it won the country’s Best Management Award for parks, and it’s easy to see why.

Our very first ride in a Gypsy

Everything ran on time, the guides and drivers were knowledgeable and enthusiastic, the gypsies (4WD-drive vehicles) were well maintained, the visitors’ centre was informative and the wildlife was abundant.

Even though we didn’t see a single tiger or leopard at Pench, the park rewarded us with wonderful and up-close sightings of dholes (wild dogs), chital (spotted deer), sambar deer, rhesus macaque and grey langur monkeys, guar (bison), wild boars, jackals, birds galore, gorgeous landscapes and our first ‘kill’ of the trip. We saw an Indian roller swoop down and grab an unsuspecting frog for lunch.

No other park—with perhaps the exception of Keoladeo with all its birdlife—gave us so many sightings and so much variety.

We had four safari drives in Pench, and it was always going to be a tough act to follow. Trust me, we gave all the other parks a decent chance, but only a couple came close.

Wild boar

Spotted deer (chital)

Langur monkey alone in the forest

I promise to give you a rundown on each of them, so you know how each fared. The following list on national parks will gain links as each post is completed—Kanha, Panna, Ranthambore, Keoladeo, Corbett and Rajaji,

For the most part, the lesser-known parks gave us the most satisfying experiences, so popularity has nothing to do with results.

But back to Pench. One of the park’s biggest claims to fame is that it served as the inspiration and setting for Rudyard Kipling’s most famous work, The Jungle Book, a collection of stories including ones about Mowgli. Kanha National Park likes to say it was the inspiration, but Pench has the honour. Although, when Kipling was alive, the two parks were joined, so perhaps they can share.

Chewed teak leaves

Sambar deer

Grey langur monkeys

Jackal

Changeable hawk eagle

Indian ghost tree

Pench spreads over 750 square kilometres, including the park itself, the Mowgli Sanctuary and a largish buffer zone. The park claims to have 44 species of mammals, almost 300 of birds and 50 each of butterflies and fish.

It’s also where we saw fine examples of teak, saja (crocodile bark) and Indian ghost trees. Interestingly, there is a worm that attacks the teak trees in Pench—we didn’t see this much elsewhere. The worm doesn’t kill the tree, but it chomps its way through the leaves.

Next time I get to India, Pench National Park will be at the top of my to-do list. I’m guessing the BBC liked it too. They used the park for the 2008 documentary wildlife series, Tiger: spy in the jungle, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

P.S. I’ll do separate posts on the various mammals, so am using just a few pics of each here. Here are links now to the gaur, jackals, wild dogs and sambar deer.