Delhi: Sariska Tiger Reserve Safari Day Trip with Lunch

The reserve that lost every tiger, and got them back

Sariska had none by 2004 — the entire population poached out, confirmed by census. It became the first reserve in the world to have tigers reintroduced by air, flown in from Ranthambore from 2008 onward. They now breed on their own.

That history makes a safari here different from one in a park that never emptied. You are looking at an ecosystem that was deliberately put back.

Getting there

Sariska is about 200 km from Delhi, three and a half to four hours, which makes this a fourteen-hour day. Private car, picked up from your hotel, the airport or anywhere in the NCR.

The safari

An open jeep inside the reserve, which covers 880 square kilometres of dry deciduous forest, rocky hill and grassland in the Aravallis, with lakes that concentrate wildlife as the dry season deepens.

Tigers are the headline and they are not guaranteed — Sariska's are fewer than Ranthambore's and the terrain is more wooded, so sightings are harder won. What you will reliably see is sambar, chital, nilgai, langur and wild boar, with leopard tracks common and the birdlife excellent: peafowl everywhere, crested serpent eagles, sandgrouse at the water.

Inside the reserve are also the ruins of Kankwari Fort, where Aurangzeb is said to have imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh, and the 10th-century Neelkanth temples.

Lunch is included.

Practical

Safari zones and permits are allocated by the forest department; nobody chooses their zone.

Sariska closes to safaris from 1 July to 30 September for the monsoon. October to March is comfortable; April to June is hot and gives the best water-hole sightings.

Mornings in December and January are genuinely cold in an open jeep — bring a jacket. Wear muted colours and leave the perfume.

Fourteen hours door to door, of which seven or eight are road. It is a long day for one safari; if tigers are the point of your trip, two nights at Ranthambore is the better booking.