Panna National Park and Tiger Reserve

Do you see the tiger? No? Aw, come on, try again. He's there. His head is on the left and you can see some back stripes on the right. Better? We'll talk about him later.

From Khajuraho, we made a half-day trip to the nearby Panna National Park. The way we did it was to take a jeep (with driver) from Khajuraho, pick up an obligatory guide at the park entrance and make the tour of the park in the same jeep. More later on transportation.

The landscape of the park is generally rollling hills with one deep valley carved out by a river. It's quite pretty, although it was arid when we were there. That didn't keep the animals away.


Starting out early - that's the sun rising.	In Panna National Park

Our jeep and driver and guide	Dundhwa Seha Gorge

We saw lots of animals, especially deer and their cousins. We are not sure of what they were, but we were told by our driver / guide that they were antilopes. It seems to us that antilopes have longer horns though. If any of you do know, please let us know.


A nilgai, a type of antelope	Probably a chital, or spotted deer - a gorgeous male

Monkeys (lemur) and spotted dear on the left	Two graceful deer in the morning mist

Antilope, most likely a Nilgai (blac buck)	A whole chital family

Then we reached the point where a tiger had been spotted. To approach him, we had to change to a quieter mode of conveyance, one which could go into the brush without having a flat tire or running out of gas: an elephant!


All aboard	Our elephant

The tiger's head, in close-up. See him now?	Back safe and sound

On the way back, we saw some more animals and scenery in this beautiful park.


The Ken River and an abandoned palace	Breakfast at Ken River Lodge

On our way out from Panna, we met with these Dalit women who were doing hard road work, supervised by two men. Their eyes were dead. They lead a life where they can't ever expect anything to improve.

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