Pench National Park is one of the most and must visit tiger reserves of India, located across two states – Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The Pench Tiger Reserve around the slopes of the Satpura range in Central India is famous for Rudyard Kipling’s – “The Jungle Book”.
On the Madhya Pradesh side, Pench Tiger Reserve has core area of 411.33 km2 and buffer along with the core the Mowgli Pench Wildlife Sanctuary. The Pench river flows through the reserve and the area of the Pench National Park is divided into three Forest Ranges Karmajhiri, Gumtara and Kurai.
Pench is the only national park in India that falls under the two states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Seoni is the nearest town to Pech, if you are driving from JBP, Madhya Pradesh and Chhindwara railway station is close to Seoni (85 km by road), Nagpur is nearest big twon with railway station and airport from Maharashtra side.
Nagpur to Pench National Park, Maharashtra (79 Km)
Jabalpur to Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh (206 km)
Chhindwara to Seoni (85 km)
Seoni to Pench National Park (70 km) MP side.
The park has 3 core and 2 buffer zones in MP side and 6 more entry points from Maharashtra side, For online safari booking MP side – Forest Department Madhya Pradesh and MH side Maharashtra National Parks.
Touira Gate and Karmajhiri zone are the two most popular and premium zones of Pench, falls under Madhya Pradesh state, Jamtara, Telia and rukhad are also part of MP side Pench national park and zones Khursapar, Sillari are part of the Maharastra side Pench Tiger Reserve.
Collarwali Tigers of Pench National Park is the most famous tiger along with famous tigress Badi Mada, male tigers of Pench – Charger, Baghinnalawali female and Langdi.
Charger and BMW was two huge hulk male tigers of Pench and Collarwali is a legendary tigress of the park.
Safari Timings: 6 AM – 11 AM & 3 PM – 6 PM from October – June, closed during monsoon months, every Wednesday evening, during Holi & Diwali
Entry Fee (approximately): Rs. 1550 for Jeep Entry (max 6 pax), Rs. 510 for Single-Seat, Rs. 360 for Guide, & Rs. 2500 for Jeep for Booking Online – click here.
The national park has dry deciduous forest and home to various types of wild animals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.
Bengal tiger is the main big cat species found in the park along with other species of mammals like leopard, sloth bear, wild dog,chital, sambar and wild boar.
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is from the Pench national park where Mowgli was raised by jungle wolves and other animal characters are Shere Khan, Tabaqui, Red Dog, Bandar-log Baloo and Bagheera – The Black Panther.