India Day Fifteen: Another Tiger On My Last Safari And A Lot Of Monkeys On My Afternoon Exploring The Aranyak Bandhavgarh Resort

I was up early again t during my stay at the beautiful Aranyak Bandhavgarh Lodge in Madhya Pradesh, India. It was my last safari in India and that meant an early start. I received a wake up call at 4:45 AM. Our group was leaving the resort at 5:25 AM so I quickly changed had some coffee and met the group in the hotel lobby. I was traveling with Royal Q Travels, and we had been lucky, seeing tigers on 3 of our 4 previous safari. This was extraordinary good luck and we hoped to see some more tigers in Bandhavgarh National Park.  Our luck was also enhanced by the great planning of our guide and tour operator Aparna and the guides she arranged for us.

Our safari vehicle left the resort in the dark. Our resort was only a few miles from the entrance to the park.  Bandhavgarh National Park is a 42 square mile park with   a moist deciduous forest with dry deciduous scrub  grasslands and rolling  hills. It is part of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve a 600 square mile reserve with the highest concentration of tigers in India.

It was cloudy with a heavy mist as we entered the park.

I enjoyed the mist that covered the mountains in the distance.

We drove through meadows,

and past a few lakes lake while our guide informed us about the  history, flora and fauna in the park. As were many of the  national  parks, it was the former hunting grounds of the local rulers.

There wasn’t much wildlife, active in the morning mist .  We did see this peacock perched in a tree.

a few gray langur monkeys

and this  white-bellied drongo .

There were also a lot of gold silk orb weaver spider hanging from the trees along the road.

The guide  identified many of the trees including the sal tree, a tree sacred to the Hindus residing in the area.

The mist eventually was burned off by the sun and we continued to drive on the roads in the park looking for a  tiger.

And when we saw this parade of safari vehicles we knew one was spotted.

We drove to were the female tiger was sighted and I got a glimpse of my 8th tiger in India. It was hard to photograph in the forest and  the three vehicles in our group  (there were four of us in each vehicle) spent over an hour waiting for the tiger to move. I  would have rather looked for other wildlife but most of the group were so intrigued by the tiger we waited for it to move from the forest.  It didn’t,

so we continued driving through the park. It was now late morning and we stopped to eat the breakfast provided to us by the resort.

It was now late morning when we left the park.

At the exit,

we saw this spotted owl perched in a tree, Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web page with some more photos of the birds and wildlife I saw on  safari. . India Day Fifteen. Bandhavgarh National Park wildlife November 24 2025.

 We left the park and drove back to the resort.  Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web site with some more photos from my morning safari. India Day Fifteen: Bandhavgarh National Park safari. November 24 2025.

I returned to my  bungalow on the lush grounds of the resort, I edited some photos before having a light lunch. I decided not to go on the  afternoon safari but to explore the lush 12 acres of woodlands at the resort instead. 

After lunch  I left my bungalow and walked through the thick canopy of trees on the lush green paths in the resort.

It was mid afternoon when I left and there wasn’t much bird activity the the mid day heat.

I walked under the large trees,

and came to a nature trail. I followed it  into a  forest of trees.

Here I found a troop of playful  rhesus macaque monkeys frolicking in the trees,

and along the trail. 

I watched as they  scampered through the trees,

and followed them  back to the swimming pool area of the resort.

Here  a mother and her offspring watched me from a roof top,

as did some older juveniles,

 I watched the monkeys for about a half hour and could have watched them their rest of the day. However it was getting late in the afternoon and I wanted to explore more of the resort and the nearby neighborhood. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web page with some more photos of the  monkeys I saw on my afternoon walk. . . India Day Fifteen. Bandhavgarh National Park afternoon monkeys  November 24 2025.

I continued on the nature trail and it took me to some housing units near a garden and  small pond.

Many beautiful flowers bloomed in the gardens and around the pond, including,  sulfur cosmos flowers,

Brazilian jasmine flowers,

blue lotus,

and passion fruit flowers.

And where thee are flowers there are butterflies, and I saw quite a few beautiful butterflies in the gardens including, this peacock pansy butterfly,

this great eggfly butterfly.

a common crow butterfly ,

a grey pansy butterfly ,

a common evening butterfly ,

and this common tiger butterfly. Again, I want to remind everyone I am no expert and rely on Google lens and my insect identification app for these identifications . Please correct me if I am wrong.

I also saw this dragonfly I couldn’t identify.

The nature trail took me back to the entrance to the resort, and I decided to leave the resort and explore the surrounding neighborhood.

I walked out on the dirt and dusty road surrounded by sacred sal trees.

I found a side path and followed it through another  grove of sal trees where,

Here I saw a few birds including this red vented bulbul,

a jungle babbler,

and Indian robin, 

and a spotted dove.

I continued on the rutted and dirt trail past some small farms,and termite mounds.

I came to what I  thought was a cemetery.

I paid my respects at what I thought were graves  but later found out that there was no one buried here.  They were memorials to departed relatives who were cremated and the remains desposed of but not here.

I left the memorials and continued on the trail looking for a small river I was told was in the area.

However, it was now late in the afternoon, and the sun was setting in the west. I decided to walk the mile back to the resort. I returned to the resort and had an early dinner. We were leaving the resort and driving to a local airport for a flight to New Delhi. Sadly my Indian adventuire was coming to an end. However, we weren’t leaving the resort until 9:30 a.m. so I had one more morning to explore the beauty of India. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web page with some more photos from my afternoon walks.  . India Day Fifteen. Bandhavgarh National Park afternoon  November 24 2025.

Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer. Leopards, cobras, monkeys, rivers and trees; they all served as my teachers when I lived as a wanderer in the Himalayan foothills.   Radhanath Swami