Hello nature lovers, hope you all are rocking and enjoying the monsoon season. Looking forward to monsoon-special trips in the coming days.

To begin with, let me clarify the myth about the rainy season. The myth is that forests are closed during the monsoon; hence, photography for 3 months stops. As I said, it is a myth; the monsoon provides an amazing backdrop for photography, greenery at its best, and you get amazing opportunities.

During the monsoon, the buffer zone remains open for safari, which is capable of giving surprises. We believe buffer is duffer, but its other way around; buffer rocks like anything. If I remember, my ratio of unique sightings is more from buffer compared to core. What I am trying to put here is that don’t ignore the buffer zone; if you get an opportunity, you should visit buffer zones as well, make a combination of core and buffer in your planning, and see the magic

Apart from forest visits, some birding destinations are equally fruitful in the monsoon; birds like Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Blue-eared Kingfisher, Lesser Florican, Vernal Hanging Parrots, etc are specialties of this season where you can see unique behavior. So don’t miss out on rainy time and try to get closer to nature.

I know you wait for the trip updates and want to know the FUNTASTIC details of the trip, so let me uncover the location now; it’s none other than PENCH. Last I visited here in 2018, so it was long pending to visit here again, and this is how Pench compares to other locations. Without taking more time lets visit the world of Mowgli and enter the forest for the fun.

The Mowgli connection

Before we start with the story, let me take a couple of minutes to explain why Pench is known as Mowgli’s forest. mostly 1980/1990, kids would certainly remember the famous series of Mowgli, but not many know why it is connected to Pench, so let me give you small details on it, and then we will move to the journey

Pench Tiger Reserve holds a special place in literary history as the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's timeless classic, The Jungle Book. The story of Mowgli, the "man-cub" raised by wolves in the heart of the jungle, has captured the imagination of readers and viewers worldwide. While Kipling never visited the area himself, the vivid descriptions of the jungle and its inhabitants in his work are believed to be inspired by the landscapes, wildlife, and culture of Pench

Rudyard Kipling based The Jungle Book on stories he heard during his childhood in India, along with British officer William Henry Sleeman's accounts of man-eating tigers and wolves. Sleeman documented incidents of wolves raising human children in the Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, which lies adjacent to Pench Tiger Reserve. This region’s wilderness, along with its abundant wildlife, likely shaped the backdrop for Kipling's narrative.

The story is endless, but I am wrapping it up in a small write-up, which explains the core of Mowgli’s connection to this lovely place. Now let’s see how real-life Mowglis behaved when they entered the forest and which characters we saw.

Safari ka safar

The journey started with the cancellation of a few lovely friends due to illness; I hope this blog will help them with visualization so they don't miss anything.

The season closure trip always happens toward the end; the same tradition we followed this year as well. With the hope that rain would not affect the trip, we started the journey of Pench around June 26, 2026. But the moment we reached, rain started signaling that I am the boss.

During the evening safari (the first one of the trip), from the start itself it started raining; we covered the gypsy and our cameras. For the initial 1 hr the situation remained covered with poor light and drizzling. The light neither improved nor chance to see anything fruitful. It was like “Barish ka Aagaz” to scare us for the rest of the trip.

In nature, you should never give up: "Ummeed Pe Duniya Kayam hai, Varna Kayam Churan hai.” With hope for the morning safari, we ended the 1^st safari with a beautiful outlook and camera warm-up with very few clicks.

Bibtya the beast

The first day was dominated by rain; surprisingly, the next 3 safari it was completely UNO reverse, with no rain during safari hours at all.

The next couple of safaris were dominated by the Beast, which is none other than the leopard; you think it will be tigers, but surprisingly this time it is the leopard (Bibtya in Marathi).

While we were searching for big cats, we were also enjoying the beautiful day with Eagles, Shikra, Peacock, deer, Hornbills, monitor lizards with mating time, etc.; though we target big cats, we also enjoy nature with whatever it offers.

While we were searching, we got news that a leopard sighting was going on like a photo shoot, but when we asked the driver/guide, we understood that it was 15 km away and would take at least 20/25 minutes to reach.

Pench is the most disciplined and well-maintained forest; with GPS tracking, the driver cannot exceed 30KM per hr, knowing this, we thought we were going to miss the action. We were aware that at the sighting point the leopard had killed a deer and was expected to visit there, but the leopard, being a highly sensitive and shy animal, will not come out during safari hours due to vehicle movement

We were excited but with no hope of reaching it because leopards hardly stay for a few minutes, especially when the area is surrounded by vehicles. Still, we decided to reach the place with only hope that due to a kill, it would be around and we may get a glimpse

Every 5 min, the other vehicle that had a sighting and was going in another direction to evaluate other things started telling us, “Leopard hai udhar jao,” and we were like, no point going there because of distance and time expectations.

Nevertheless, with Ummeed and Kayam Churan, we decided to continue towards the sighting place to take a chance, because in nature you can expect the unexpected, and lastly it happened like that only. We reached after almost 20 or maybe 25 min, and luckily the leopard was still there.

Here is the luck factor: there were 3 leopards, 2 cubs with the mother leopard; the place we got to take shots turned out to be bang opposite the spot, though it was a little far, but still was the best spot compared to other vehicles. The luck helped with a super sighting of leopard and cubs feasting on deer.

Nazar or sabar

In the forest, Nazar and Sabar both are required for unique sightings. Nazar means you keep an eye on everything, observe and listen to the forest (calls of other animals hinting at the presence of big cats), and Sabar means you need to have patience, wait, wait, and wait if you get a hint through some observation or through any calls (certainly not the team's call 😆).

At a particular place in the morning, we got a monkey call hinting at the presence of a leopard. The calling continued for a couple of minutes, but then for a moment it stopped. Here, Sabar played the key role: will you wait, or will you move ahead? We took the decision to wait for some more time; we had enough patience and had no hurry to move.

The calling started again with a clear direction that a big cat was present for sure. In the next 2 minutes, two leopards jumped from the tree and started crossing the road in front of us; this helped us capture the road crossing, turning into another moment. For the first time, I saw a leopard jumping from a tree. This was a game-changing and memorable event that made our day.

The total count of leopards went up to 6; we were lucky to sight one more leopard, which was hiding inside the tree, but we captured a glimpse while it was trying to run away.

Now you must be thinking why there is no talk of tigers, and the leopard count reached 6; did we miss the tiger? Wait, my friends, picture abhi baaki hai; the tiger story will come in the style

Balidan parmo dharam

This section is for tiger sighting, which I kept separate because it has the Balidan story of a few of our friends. During the safaris where we were busy counting leopards, we also had good captures of tigers; four cars saw tigers differently; some got good shots while some got just a glimpse. Till the 4^th safari, almost complete coverage was in place to an extent; like we had a variety of birds, wild dogs, jackals, etc so the 4^th Safari was like no stress to find tigers but to go deep and try to get something unique. With this thought, some friends planned to exit the forest early to take an early flight to reach home on the same day.

Now the Balidan came into the picture; the friends who wanted to exit early gave their route to Viraj and decided that the early planners would take another route so that they all could exit together.

The Balidan of the route to Viraj created a twist; the route had luck attached to it. Viraj’s vehicle was so lucky that within 10 minutes of entry got a tiger with two cubs. The sighting was such that it turned out to be the best amongst all. Little cubs playing with mother tiger, walking, taking a nap, etc, the whole sequence he got. This was the Balidan of early exit to Viraj and others, so next time please ensure you give Balidan, not to Viraj but to us 😜

We all got enough sightings with variety; the place is beautiful, and we would like to visit again and again.

Now, at the end, please look at the BT’s World section to see exciting pictures of the tour. Do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks, team NEI, for managing the tour so smoothly. You people are rocking; keep it up.

Guide and drivers – Your efforts and knowledge helped us get memories of a lifetime; many thanks

Co-Travelers – We will keep meeting each one of you soon; many thanks for a lovely time.

Village Machaan Resort – The place is beautiful; second visit to this place and remains equally memorable. Food was just awesome, staff is very helpful, and rooms are big and good for such groups.

BT’s World