Samrat stayed, unmoved. He yawned a bit. His gaze settled somewhere in the middle of our jeep. And then, for a full couple of seconds – which would seem like eternity for all of us seated inside the vehicle – Samrat stared straight.

We froze. Everyone thought that the animal was looking at them.

In that moment when the world seemed to come to a startling halt, someone shouted, “Camera…picture”, after which we came to our senses, to reach to the visual instruments to capture the moment.

Slowly, Samrat started to move away. In a few seconds, he would cross the road and disappear into the bushes…but not before turning back to glance at us.

A tiger at Bandhavgarh

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He had seen us. At Bandhavgarh, a board with a tiger near the exit gate out reads, “Don’t be disappointed if you do not see me. Because, I have seen you.”

Samrat is one of the 100-plus tigers for whom the muddy lanes of Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh is home. Samrat translates to ‘king’ in Hindi and this massive, male Bengal tiger strolls the Tala and Khitauli zones of the park with carefree abandon.

“Samrat was my first sighting here, so he is special,” Viswajit Singh Solanki, a tour guide tells me about this 8-year-old tiger, “He lives on the hills and is quite elusive.”

We are driving slowly along the muddy lanes of Bandhavgarh, declared a tiger reserve in the year 1993 after being a National Park for a few decades. The state – Madhya Pradesh – itself leads India’s tiger census, with more than 780 tigers spread across its wildlife reserves.

While Bandhavgarh boasts considerable variety in flora and fauna, including the India pitta and crested serpent eagle, the tiger remains the focus. It is home to 164 tigers, according to the last population census, out of which 35 tigers are accessible to tourists in core and buffer zones.

The resort’s lounge area

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Spread across 1536 square kilometres, the reserve is divided almost equally into core and buffer zones. “Buffer zones include farms and villages, which exist with some restrictions,” explains Viswajit, “These are important because sub-adult tigers rely on such zones for easier prey such as cattle, while adult tigers prowl in core zones that have more deer and other prey.”

Jungle callingSolar energy powers more than 75 percent of the cottages in the Kings Lodge, a measure taken to promote sustainability. “In a couple of years, we hope to be declared carbon-neutral,” says Manav Khanduja of Pugdundee Safaris. The team also runs the popular Pro-Nat programme, a non-profit initiative to groom people who are looking to take up wildlife and associated sectors as a career. While another programme, A-Nat, targets amateur naturalist who are keen but cannot spare too many days, the most recent initiative is ‘Y-Nat’, primarily focussing on children (in the 12-17 age group) taking up four practical modules revolving around forest-based topics.

Tiger tourism: then and now

The tiger is a superstar in these parts of town, according to Manav Khanduja of Pugdundee Safaris, which runs the 14-hectare Kings Lodge set in a natural forested estate that contains 10 cottages and 8 stilt houses. “Bandhavgarh is definitely among the top places in the world to spot a tiger,” he affirms, “but due to the immense pressure to spot one, tourists are also preferring to frequent buffer zones, which was not the case a few years ago.”

A snapshot of the safari

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Manav recalls a time in Bandhavgarh a couple of decades ago when, during the pre mobile-phone era, “tiger shows” used to be a popular concept. “Elephants were employed to spot tigers, and one elephant would be parked at that place. Tourists who were willing to pay a supplement would climb on the elephant to get a glimpse of the tiger. There was no pressure to sight the tiger back then, because this option was available,” he explains. Such ‘tiger shows’ were ultimately banned by the government. “Today, with the advent of technology and artificial intelligence, we need to find ways to implement responsible tiger tourism,” he adds.

A grand sight

We head inside the jungle through Tala Zone, a place that houses more than a dozen caves, some of them filled with bats. Locals believe that the fort here is more than 1000 years old, attached with a story that Lord Rama built it for his brother Lakshman – thus earning the place the name ‘Bandhavgarh’ (fort for the brother). Subsequently, it became the hunting ground for kings. Maharaja Marthand Singh of Rewa is a man often credited with establishment and conservation of the National Park in the Sixties.

Guests on a cycling trail

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Today, tourists can plan safaris inside the park, but will not be allowed cellphones – in fact, most reserves have lockers or boxes to deposit your mobiles. This is following a Supreme Court ruling in early 2026, aimed at responsible wildlife tourism and less stress for the animals. “In the past, the focus was on observing the beauty and grandeur of the tiger,” recalls Viswajit, “Tourists used to spend time focussing on every little detail, including its stripes and injury marks. I hope we can bring back those times following this ban because now, the focus is more on capturing footage and photos. We’ve had cases of tourists trying to take selfies with the tiger as well. If you avoid the phone, you will enjoy sighting the tigers.”

The writer was in Bandhavgarh on invitation from Pugdundee Safaris