There are 12 game drives included during your stay at Jaagir Manor, and you're able to choose which parks you would like to visit on each day during both the morning and afternoon when booking your trip. To assist you in your decision, a description of each park can be found below. There's some flexibility to adjust your schedule once you have arrived based on recent sightings, however this cannot be guaranteed.
Dudhwa National Park is the closest to Jaagir, around a 20-minute drive and consists of varied landscapes including lush, forested sections, densely packed and only allowing dapples of light to reach the forest floor creating marvellous eery photographic opportunities, often using the track as a perfectly framed window for your subject to wander into. These sections are an ideal place to find Indian elephants as they silently navigate through the verdant jungle feasting on the plentiful vegetation as they go, only to give their position away with the snapping of a branch underfoot or the felling of a tree to indulge on the nutritious leaves that were previously out of reach. Sloth bear, tiger and leopard all reside in this forest, with the latter two of the three taking advantage of the dense cover to conceal themselves from their prey. During the afternoons there's the opportunity to visit the greater one-horned rhino reintroduction zone, which is a fenced area within the park of around 27 square kilometres where a population of roughly 42 rhinos are protected as they become accustomed to their surroundings prior to being released into the wider Dudhwa National Park. The landscape here's slightly more open with numerous water bodies and towering reeds presenting plenty of places for these rare and majestic ungulates to wallow. It also provides a perfect habitat for various bird species such as clamorous reed warbler, river tern, swamp francolin, common greenshank and osprey.
Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary is located along the banks of the Sharada River, approximately an hour away by vehicle, and generally delivers the most regular tiger sightings. This area is around 227 square kilometres in size and in certain sections resembles Dudhwa's vegetation, with dense riparian forests and moist deciduous trees such as sal, teak and jamun, paired with numerous meadows, perennial streams and marshlands. This creates an ideal habitat for barasingha (swamp deer), with numbers reaching as high as 800 around Jhadi Tal, the main water body within Kishanpur. Smooth-coated otters can be seen frolicking along the banks of the tal and numerous bird species frequent this area including red-crested pochard, oriental darter, little grebe, grey headed fish eagle, river lapwing and Indian pond heron.
Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary requires a full day to experience, as the transfer time is likely to take two hours. The sanctuary is a 400-square-kilometre area of sal and teak forest, grassland and wetland positioned on the banks of the Girwa River, which is protected itself as a haven for gharials and mugger crocodiles. The highlight of a visit to Katarniaghat is a morning boat safari along the river, which acts as a natural border with Bardia National Park in neighbouring Nepal. From the water, it's possible to explore many small channels searching for a variety of bird species and various turtles such as Indian roof turtle, Indian pond turtle and Indian tented turtle. The critically endangered gharial has made a resurgence along the river due to the protected status and is regularly seen basking on the sandbars. The Gangetic river dolphin is another endangered species that's seldom seen elsewhere but here chances are greater; this is still a highly elusive species but Katarniaghat is one of the best places to see them. Tigers occupy the forests and have been seen crossing the river from the boat on occasion. Between activities, you can spend time at the information centre learning about the local wildlife and topography whilst your lunch is prepared before a game drive through the forest in the afternoon, where it's possible to encounter leopard and Indian elephant amongst species of deer such as spotted (chital), sambar, hog, barking and swamp.
Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is another protected area which requires a full day to experience with the format being a morning game drive followed by lunch in the picnic area and then an afternoon game drive, the drive time is approximately two and a half hours from the lodge. Comprised of a mosaic of high sal forests, plantation and grasslands with several water bodies across 600-square-kilometres, Pilibhit is a vast forested area of the Terai ecosystem. Similar to the other parks in terms of wildlife, this Project Tiger reserve is one of the narrowest tiger reserves in India and the surrounding outskirts support amongst the highest human population densities of all tiger conservation areas, and at times this is notable when passing from one section of Pilibhit to the next. Despite this close proximity to humans, tiger numbers have increased drastically in recent years, with the last census in 2018 finding that in the decade previous the population had doubled to 65 individuals.
During the evenings at the lodge, you can ask your naturalist to escort you on night walks from the property to look for fishing cat and other nocturnal species in the surrounding area.
