Pench tiger reserve is located in Satpura hills of Central India. It lies in southern boundary of Madhya Pradesh state and shares the forest area with Maharashtra state. It means majority of forest area is in Madhya Pradesh and some forest area is in Maharashtra state also. Their is no physical boundary in between these two states so no restriction for animal movements. Its name "Pench" is derived from the river Pench, which passes through this forest area and considered as the life life of this jungle. When we talk about Pench national park, it is often linked with Rudyard Kipling's classic "The Jungle Book" and its central character "Mogli". It is true also and we have dedicated separate page in our website for this discussion. It was declared as a Pench Wildlife Sanctuary in year 1977 and later promoted to National Park in year 1983. Later to was declared as 19th Project Tiger Reserve in year 1992. Since then it came into limelight and wildlifers started showing more interest towards this beautiful jungle. It the same time when actual wildlife conservation started in this forest area and its result were experienced in coming years with improvement in population of mammals & birds. This was milestone step in revival of this forest. Since then, Pench forest become a better wildlife destination for wildlife lovers. Now a days, large number of tourists visits this destination in safari season and enjoy their vacations. It is also a paradise for wildlife photographers as it has high density of herbivores animals and during jungle safari drive, we will experience this with frequent sighting of mammals.
Pench tiger reserve is spread over two states i.e. Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh respectively. In Madhya Pradesh, forest of Pench touches the Seonee town also. As we all know that Sir Rudyard Kipling's classic "The Jungle Book" is inspired from the the character of called "Sanichar" who was captured from forest area adjoining to Seoni town. It was year 1830 and team was lead by officer John Moore. In those days it was their is no two states and this all area was part of Central Province. It was Robert Armitage Sterndale who was a big hunter and a naturalist. He visited Satpura range forest area and wrote a book on his experience called "Seonee, The Camp Life on the Satpura Range", published in year 1877. Kipling take inspiration from this book to wrote "The Jungle Book". During his visit to Satpura forest, he killed many tigers in which some tigers are responsible for killing many local villagers. Apart from this he shot down many birds and other mammal species. It was declared as Pench Sanctuary in year 1977 with area of 449.39 sq.kms. It was declared as Pench Tiger Reserve in year 1992-93 with inclusion of Pench National Park and Pench Mowgli Sanctuary.
Here in Pench national park of Madhya Pradesh, two types of safari drives are offered to visitors. One is popular jeep safari drive and second one in Canter safari. Here core zone safari tickets are easily available so tourists can conveniently visit the national park in season time.
| Month | Morning Safari | Afternoon Safari |
| October | 06:00 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:00 Hrs |
| November | 06:15 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:45 Hrs |
| December | 06:30 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:30 Hrs |
| January | 06:45 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 17:45 Hrs |
| February | 06:30 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:15 Hrs |
| March | 06:15 - 11:00 Hrs | 15:00 - 18:30 Hrs |
| April | 05:45 - 11:00 Hrs | 16:00 - 18:45 Hrs |
| May | 05:30 - 11:00 Hrs | 16:00 - 19:00 Hrs |
| June | 06:00 - 11:00 Hrs | 16:00 - 19:00 Hrs |
Safari timings were decided by PCCF of Madhya Pradesh. Here park authority retains the right to adjust the timing for convenience in park management. As per change in timing of sunrise and sunset, they keep on adjusting entry & exit timing for jungle safari in Pench national park.
If you are visiting Pench national park of Madhya Pradesh state then you can undertake Jeep safari and Canter safari for jungle safari drive. Here in Madhya Pradesh side, main safari zones are Touria zone, Karmajhiri zone, Jamtara zone. Among them Touria zone is most popular as majority of resorts are located nearby this zone entrance gate and it offers high number of tickets also for visitors, It is also the oldest safari zone of national park. If you want to visit from Maharashtra side, which is Southern part of Pench Tiger Reserve, then popular zone is Khursapar which can be accessed easily while staying at resort near Touria gate. Large number of tourists visits this zone. Apart from this their are many other safari zones also like Sillari, in Maharashtra side. Here Canter safari is not offered so only jeep safari can be undertaken. Just do your safari permits booking in advance (60-90 days) to get assured best safari zones on confirm basis.
Pench national park is popular for high density of Herbivores animals. Speciality of this national park is that during safari we can enjoy the sighting of variety of mammals species and you will not find loneliness in national park area. About 47 mammal species checklist have been recorded for this tiger reserve. Some of the prominently seen mammals are: Leopard, Tiger, Sloth Bear, Indian Fox, Indian Wolf, Wild Dog (Dholes), Jackal, Fox, Jungle Cat, Rusty Spotted Cat, Common Langur, Small Indian Civet, Common Mongoose, Blue Bull (Nilgai), Indian Gaur, Common Giant Flying Squirrel etc. As tiger is the major safari attraction for almost all the visitors thus we can find healthy population of tigers in Pench and thus tiger sighting probability remains high, especially from February to June month. This national park is good for tiger safari experience.
Avifaunal diversity of Pench national park is popular among tourists. During jungle safari, we can enjoy sighting of different bird species. Here we can about 270 species of birds. Some of the commonly seen bird species are Yellow necked Dove, Darter, Great Cormorant, Lettle Egret, Grey Heron, Grey Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Cattle Egret, Black Ibis, Lesser Whistling Duck, Common Teal, Shikra, Drongo, Black-shouldered Kite, Brahminy Kite, Indian White-backed Vulture, Crested Serpent Eagle, Woodpecker, Grey Francolin, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Peacock, Red Jungle Fowl, Jungle Bush Quail, Indian Parakeet, Common Sandpiper, Lapwings, Golden Orioles etc. Their are many popular areas for birding in Pench national park like Alikatta, Totladoh dam, Kohka lake site, Amba Khari, Rahidoh, Pipariya Talao. Here best time for birding is from October to January month.
Accessibility to Pench national park is very easy. Its main nearby large city is Nagpur which is very conveniently connected by road and provides support to local citizens in various ways. Lets check how to reach Pench:
Nearest Airport = Nagpur Airport
Nearest Railway Station = Nagpur Railway Station
Nearest Bus Stand = Seoni Bus Stand, Nagpur Bus Stand, Chhindwara Bus Stand
Pench national park-Core Zones are open for visitors from October to June month. Majority of tourists do Pench tour in this period. If we analyze month-wise data, we will notice that tourism remain in peak in months of November to April months in which both Indian and Foreigners tourists visits this wildlife destinations. Thus we can say that period from November to April is the best time to visit Pench national park.
Pench tiger reserve is a popular wildlife tourism destination thus large number of tourists are visiting this safari destination. Considering the large volume of visitors, here many good resorts and safari lodges have been developed, with passage of time. Thus here we can find large variety of accommodation option. Here we can find more accommodation options in Standard, Deluxe and Luxury categories. Whereas budget category options are very few or we can say that good budget category option is not available. Due to closeness from Nagpur, which itself is a costly city, we can observe this effect here also. During weekends, Pench receives large number of tourists from Nagpur city who use to visit this place to spend their weekends or on some special occasions.
Pench national park is located on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state. It is part of Central India. Pench Tiger Reserve is surrounded by mostly wildlife tourism destinations like Kanha National Park (190kms), Nagzira (180kms), Tadoba National Park (270kms), Satpura National Park (300kms) etc. If you are interested in nature tourism or hill station, then you can visit to Pachmarhi hill station. Jabalpur city is just 200kms from Pench national park.
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