TOTALLY WILD
NEW IDEA’S RACHELLE MACKINTOSH EXPLORES THE INDIAN FORESTS THAT INSPIRED THE JUNGLE BOOK
Arriving at Nagpur Airport in central India, it’s hard to imagine the wilderness that inspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Jungle Book is just a couple of hours’ drive away. But as you leave the urban sprawl, the scenery becomes a patchwork of farmlands, villages and soon, teak forests, as you reach the borders of Pench National Park. Here, near the park’s entrance gate at Turia, you will find Baghvan Wilderness Lodge
– a Taj Hotels jungle retreat with a luxurious twist.
SWEET RETREAT
Nestled in dense jungle alongside a dry riverbed, Baghvan offers every possible creature comfort while seamlessly blending into the wilderness. The main guest area includes a stylish swimming pool, atmospheric dining deck and comfortable lounge areas, and the 12 bungalows each feature private jungle courtyards, outdoor rain showers, and machans – breezy outdoor mezzanines with comfortable day beds. It’s the perfect spot to read a book between safari drives, or roll out the supplied yoga mat for a stretching session.
The food here is just as impressive, with Baghvan’s chefs pairing tasty local curries with naan bread hot from the tandoor. And their desserts will send your sweet tooth to heaven: the chocolate brownie and gulab jamun will ensure ‘svaadisht’ becomes your new favourite word (that’s Hindi for delicious).
EYE A TIGER
Baghvan’s personalised service is also a key feature of their wildlife safaris in Pench National Park, as one of their expert naturalists escorts you on each trip and not only points out the various animals, but also shares fascinating insights into their behaviour and individual identities. One of the park’s most famous tigers, Collarwalli, featured in the acclaimed David Attenborough doco called Tiger – Spy in the Jungle, and she and her cubs are often sighted.
There are two safari drives each day – morning and afternoon – with each drive exploring a different part of Pench’s 757km biodiverse area. And the ever-changing scenery itself is a highlight, ranging from rocky outcrops to teak forests, garnished with 1200 different types of plants. This vast landscape is home to everything from tigers, leopards, wolves, jungle cats and jackals to their herbivorous neighbours including blue bulls, four-horned antelopes, sambar deer and chitals. Sloth bears are also found in the park but, unlike Kipling’s Baloo, they’re famously shy and sightings are rare.
Pench is also heaven for twitchers, with more than 280 species of resident and migratory birds, including wild peacocks, Indian rollers, crested serpent eagles, Malabar pied hornbills, scops owls and vultures.
WILD ENCOUNTERS
Throughout my three-day stay at Baghvan my expert naturalist, Akhil Johny, gets us up close to three different tigers, a leopard, countless macaques and langurs, and even a gaur – the world’s biggest cow, which at 1500kg is the size of a car!
Every day in the Pench forest is different, but each offers a unique adventure in wilderness that’s remained unchanged since it first inspired Kipling.
And on each safari Akhil teaches me a little bit more about how to decode the animals’ calls. The cough of a langur, the wail of a chital and the shriek of a sambar deer, for example, all indicate that a tiger is nearby.
So, on my last night at the Baghvan Wilderness Lodge, when I’m awoken around midnight to the sound of a shrieking sambar deer near the fence-line, I’m thrilled to know there’s a tiger somewhere on the other side of it – it’s an absolute privilege as there’s only 3500 of these big cats left in the wild across the world, and a fitting end to an unforgettable adventure.