Pench Tiger Reserve and the surrounding area is the real story area of Rudyard Kipling’s famous “The Jungle Book”. The idea of Mogali is made from the pamphlet “An Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in their Dens” by Sir William Henry Sliman. In 1831 there was a report of the arrest of a child who had grown up with wolves in village Satbavadi near Seoni. The place described in “The Jungle Book”, the Vainganga River, its valley where Sher Khan was killed, the mountain ranges of village Kannivara and Sivani etc. are the actual places in the Seoni district. The forest areas of the Pench Tiger Reserve have a glorious history. Pench Tiger Reserve was awarded to “Best Maintained Tourist Friendly National Park” Award under the National Tourism Prize 2006-07.
How to reach there
Nearest Airport : Jabalpur and Nagpur
Nearest Railway Station : Jabalpur, Chhindwara & Nagpur
Pench Tiger Reserve has three entry point (Gate) namely, Turia, Karmajhiri, Jamtara
Nearest Airport or Railway station to Pench is Nagpur. It is App. 80 KM distance and it takes 2 Hours to reach by road. You can hire the car from Nagpur.
Where to Stay
There are lot of resorts in Pench. Few resorts are close to Turia gate and preferable for stay. We stayed in Pench Jungle Camp which is located just opposite to Turia gate. Since the Safaris starting time is early morning, it is preferable to stay close to the Gate. There are Nice Rooms & Tents available in this resort to stay. It is thrilling experience to stay in Tents close to Jungle. See below pics of Tent.
Contact Details for Resort & Safari booking : Arpit (Monu) Dubey, Director, Pench Tiger Home. Phone : 9685770170/8085108834
Flora and Fauna
- The forests found in Pench Tiger Reserve are divided into three parts as follows: –
- Southern tropical wet deciduous forest
- Southern tropical dry deciduous teak forest
- Southern tropical dry deciduous mixed forest
- Dry mixed forest spreads in about one-third area of ??protected area. Whose main species are salai, pickle, moyan, tendu etc. Kahua (Arjuna), Jamuna, Guular and Saja are found along the banks of river streams. Trees of Mahua, Palash, Plum etc. are found scattered around the open forests of displaced areas of old villages. Teak forests are found in about one quarter area. There are about 82 types of grass species and Bamboo found in this forest area. The major Carnivores are Tiger, leopard, wild cat, wild dog, hyena, jackal, fox, wolf, weasel among the vegetarian species, Gaur, Nilgai, Sambar, Chital, Chasinga, Chinkara, Wild Pig etc. are prominent. In this Tiger Reserve, birds of about 325 species can also be seen in various seasons of the year. In the sunny areas of the Totladoh reservoir situated inside the park limits, there are a lot of migratory birds seen in the cold season. Among the migratory birds, Ruddy shelduck, Pintail, Whistling Teal and Vegtel etc are prominent
- Best Time to visit the park is 15 October to 30 June.
Weather
Pench being situated in Central India, it is subjected to extreme and tropical weather. Month of January may also witness sub-zero temperatures and frost. Monsoon arrives in the second week of June. I visited this Jungle in the month of January and minimum temperature was 5 Degrees. Safari starts at 5.45 AM in the morning and you should carry all protective gear with you. The average temperature over the months is as below:
| Months | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| Min (°C) | 1 | 10 | 22 | 30 | 35 | 25 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 12 | 6 | 3 |
| Max (°C) | 15 | 25 | 35 | 40 | 42 | 41 | 34 | 30 | 31 | 29 | 27 | 25 |
Landscapes in Pench
Pench jungle is very dense and filled with tall trees. With great difficulty sun-rays reach the bottom. It is very interesting scene in the early morning to see sun-rays beaming down the dense jungle. Look at the below photograph.
Tigers of Pench
Pench has large number of Tigers and Leopards. Off course Leopard sighting is a luck but you get good sighting of Tigers.
Mammals in Pench
We observed very interesting scene in Pench about Langoor and Spotted dear friendship. It is actually based on mutual benefit. Langoors sit at the top of the tree and throw tender green leaves for deers and in return spotted dear gives instant alert when they sense danger of predators. Langoor also gives instant alert call if they see predator approaching them. Look at the pictures below where you see spotted dear looking up the tree at langoor for tender leaves.
You can see lot of Golden Jackals in this Jungle. See below pics.
You can also photograph birds in this Jungle. Indian Roller, Vultures, Eagles , Owls and Peacock can be commonly seen here. Overall it is very thrilling experience. One must experience this thrill.
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