About Satpura National Park

 

Satpura National Park is located in district Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It gets the name from Satpura hill ranges (Mahadeo hills). It covers an area of 524 km˛. Satpura National Park, and along with the adjoining Bori and Panchmarhi Sanctuaries, provides 1427 km˛ of unique Central Indian Highland ecosystem. It was set up in 1981. The terrain of the national park is extremely rugged and consists of sandstone peaks, narrow gorges, ravines and dense forests. The altitude ranges from 300 m to 1352 m. It has Dhoopgarh peak as high as 4500 feet (1400 m) and the almost level plains of Churna. The nearest town to the national park is Pachmarhi and the nearest railhead is Piparia at a distance of 55 km. The state capital Bhopal is situated at a distance of 210 km.

Landscape of National Park:

The terrain of the national park is extremely rugged and consists of fascinating deep valleys, sandstone peaks, narrow gorges, rivulets, waterfalls, thickly dense green forest of Sal and other medicinal herbs and Tawa’s vast reservoir. Un-even altitude ranges from 290m. to 1352 m. Highest peak of national park is in Satpura National Park i.e. Dhoopgarh at an altitude of 4500 feets(1400 m.). As it is the highest peak of Madhya Pradesh, sunlight reaches this peak earlier than anyother landscape of Madhya Pradesh.

Flora of Satpura National Park:
Bio-diversity of national park is stunning with over 1300 species of plants. Flora of national park includes teak, sal, tendu, mahua (Indian butter-tree), bel (stone-apple), bamboos, grasses, bushes, unchecked grown lantanas and other many medicinal plants whose details are not available now. It is said that in majority of jungle we can judge that sal is the prominent flora of National Park.

The Satpura Tiger Reserve, is believed to be one of Central India’s best kept secrets. Its only wildlife national park, one of its kind experiences offered only in Satpura National park. To truly understand the secret ways of jungle ,to appreciate the working of its innermost recesses, to see and learn the signs and tracks that wildlife leaves through the forest and to learn to interpret these to savor the smell sound and sense of wilderness, you have to take to your feet. Satpura is unique amongst tiger reserves in permitting this type of walking

Fauna of Satpura National Park:

Being a part of unique eco-system, Satpura National Park is very rich in bio-diversity. Its fauna comprises chinkara, Indian Bison(Gaur), tigers, leopards, wild boar, wild dog, bear, black buck, porcupinem, Sambhar, four horned antelopes, smooth otter, pangolin, marsh crocodile, ratel and monkeys etc. Indian giant squirrel is the special feature of Satpura National Park as it is rare in India now. Tiger sighting of this national park is not so impressive as compare to nearby Bandhavgarh, Kanha or Pench national parks. So it is required when we go for jugle safari in national park, we should no go with single mindset of tiger-sighting but enjoy sighting all members of national park as they are equally share the jungle with tigers and are extremely beautiful creatures of nature..
.

---

 

HOW TO REACH BANDHAVGARH NATIONAL PARK
 

By Train: Nearest railway station for Satpura National Park are Pipariya (50kms), Sohagpur (19km), Itarsi (75kms), Hoshangabad (50kms). Among them Pipariya & Itarsi are important one as most of the important trains stops their.Pipariya railway station is on main route of Mumbai-Howrah line. Park is accessible by train from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Agra, Varanasi etc.

By Road: Satpura National Park is spread over Jabalpur - Bhopal road. Nearest cities are
Bhopal (210kms), Jabalpur (250kms) & Chindwara. Their are 03 important entrance gates for Satpura National Park in which important ones can be reached from Sohagpur & Pachmarhi. Madhai entrance gate is about 18kms diversion from Sohagpur towards Sarangpur village. Although small air-strip is available in Pachmarhi, but proper near-by airports are in Bhopal (200 kms.), Jabalpur (250 kms.) and Nagpur city (255 kms.). Private car rental services are
available in all these cities.

By Flight: Those who wish to reach Satpura Tiger Reserve through flight can fly up to Bhopal Airport (200kms), Jabalpur Airport (250kms) & Nagpur Airport (320kms). From these airport,
further journey toward forest can be done via road using taxi service.

---

 

Jeep Safari Timing -  Satpura National Park

Just like any other national parks of Madhya Pradesh, Jungle Safari system of Satpura National Park is similar. Here 4-wheel driven vehicles (petrol/diesel) are used to park-safari. Here no vehicle of more that 5-years old is allowed to go for park-safari. Park entrance charges and guide fee is similar to any other national park of Madhya Pradesh. Jeeps are generally hired from market in Pachmarhi or through hotels.
Timing
WINTER (Oct to Jan)
MORNING - 06 : 30 to 10 : 30 AM,
EVENING - 01 : 30 to 5 : 30 PM
SUMMER SAFARI TIMING (Feb to June)
MORNING - 06 : 00 to 10 :00 AM
EVENING - 02 : 30 to 06 : 30 PM

---

 

Safari Facilities - Satpura National Park.

Boat Safari- a fantastic way of bird watching and Wildlife viewing is by boat, canoe or Kayak paddling silently along the jungle’s edge and enjoying the birdlife and wildlife as it emerges. Magical experience. All boats are manned by trained boatmen/Guides who are re-employed fishermen left jobless with the expansion of the park boundaries over the water.

Elephant Safari: As with other tiger reserves in central India, Satpura supports a small herd of riding elephants that are used to track tigers and then put on a ‘tiger show’ where visitors can drive up to the closest road point to the tiger, climb abroad an elephant and be ferried out to where the tiger is located. It is good way to see and photograph Tigers. However at Satpura it is possible to hire elephants for an hour or two and just head out in to the jungle seeing what you may see.