Bandhavgarh National Park is the best park to spot a Tiger in the wild in India. Located in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh, the park was a Shikargah, or game preserve for the Maharajas of Rewa and their guests. The park was declared a National Park in 1968 and a Tiger Reserve in 1972 under the Project Tiger and Wildlife Protection Act.
In 1982 three more nearby ranges namely Khitauli, Magdhi, and Kallawah were included along with Tala (the original Bandhavgarh National Park) to form Bandhavgarh National park. While the buffer zone includes the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni. Bandhavgarh is famed for one of the highest density of Bengal tigers in the world. The park is synonymous with its original and the most famous inhabitant. “Charger”, the first recorded healthy male residing in Bandhavgarh since the 1990s, a tigress called Sita and Charger are the second most photographed tiger and tigress in the world and have been featured on the cover of National Geographic.
Charger died in 2000 and his body lays buried at Charger Point (A Tourist Spot) where he was confined in old age. Between 2003 and 2006, many of his descendants met with a series of unfortunate ends. B2 became the Alpha Male after Charger’s death. Mating with a female in the Siddhababa region of Bandhavgarh, he sired three cubs. One of them was a male, Bamera. He was first spotted in 2008 in Tala and was the most famed and dominant tiger of Bandhavgarh till recently.
Blue Eyes and Mukunda are the dominant Tigers of Magdhi and Khitauli zone respectively. The popular tigresses include Rajbehra, Mirchaini, Banbehi, Spotty, Sukhi Pattiya and Damdama.
The parks are open from 01st October to 30th June every year. The peak season to visit is from October to March with summer temperatures often being unbearable. However, the months from March-June are ideal for better Tiger sightings due to drying of most vegetation in Bandhavgarh.