Bandhavgarh National Park comprises extensive sal forests, mixed forests, hills, valleys, rivers, wetlands and meadows, which account for the high diversity of flora and fauna in this pretty national park. The vegetation is predominantly tropical moist deciduous with mixed forests in the higher hills and patches of grasslands and bamboo. Bandhavgarh is botanically interesting with medicinal plants and insectivorous plants. The national park has cliffs, about 800m high, rising 300m above the surroundings.

Bandhavgarh is one of the best national parks in the world for tiger sightings. Few return without seeing this most magnificent of animals and largest of big cats over a three or four day stay at The Monsoon Forest. The Bandhavgarh National Park also has a sizable population of other predators like leopard, sloth bear and the dhole, the Indian wild dog.

While driving through this national park you will see large herds of ungulates like the chital or spotted deer and sambar, Asia’s largest deer. The muntjac or barking deer, nilgai antelope, chinkara or Indian gazelle, chausingha (the world’s only four-horned antelope) wild boar and gaur or Indian bison are also often possible sightings. Langur and rhesus macaque are the primates of Bandhavgarh.

You need luck to sight some of the more elusive mammals like Indian fox, Indian wolf, ratel or honey badger, hyena, civets, lesser cats, etc.

Birdwatchers can expect to see birds characteristic of the Indo-Malayan tropical deciduous forests can be seen like the white-naped woodpecker, red jungle fowl, red and painted spurful, lesser adjutant, grey hornbill, long-tailed minivet, alexandrine and plum headed parakeets, chestnut bellied and painted sandgrouse, yellow crowned woodpecker, crested serpent eagle, white-eyed buzzard, white-browed fantail, greater racket tailed drongo, Tickel’s blue flycatcher, etc. It has been declared an Important Bird Area because of the presence of critically endangered white-backed and long-billed vultures, vulnerable species like saras crane and adjutant stork, and near threatened birds like oriental darter, black-headed ibis, grey-headed fish eagle and Malabar pied hornbill.

The wildlife viewing drives in open vehicles are good for watching the birds in the national park and a ramble around Bandhavgarh Fort can also yield some sightings. The green environment of Monsoon Forest also brings in a rich birdlife.

Bandhavgarh has a substantial population of lizards, turtles and snakes. Flap-shell Turle, Fat-tailed Gecko, Common Skink, Cobra, Krait, Russel’s Viper, Indian Rat Snake, Common Wolf Snake and Indian Rock Python are some species that are usually seen.