55 independent reviews for Wildlife holiday in Central India

Hello Karen Thank you for the review. We had to change the camping location because a tigress had come into the area which had mauled a local villager. Proof of this incident was shown to you by the lodge manager in the form of local news reporting. Information about the incident was passed to the lodge night before your camping but only had an official word from the rangers the next day when you were in the park. For the safety of guests and camping team, the camping site was closed by the department and shifted to another camping site. Park rules and regulations are governed by the forest department and any changes to them apply to all. This is also clearly mentioned under our note section in the itinerary which we sent you. Since it is a jungle with wild animals, certain things are beyond our control. You were informed about this as soon as you reached for lunch after morning safari. You agreed to the new campsite and later on, just before the departure, you asked to cancel. By this time all was setup. Also, I would like to point out that we did organize camping at an equally beautiful spot but just down the river in a safer place. We use multiple camping sites due to many reasons such as if another lodge is already camping there, river overflowing or no water at all, movement of park rangers, census survey or in your case movement of a dangerous tiger. Above all, we do not mention any specific camping site because the camping site may change due to any of the above reasons. It would have been called cheating if we had not informed you about the closure of the camping site and directly taken you to a new site. Since we believe in complete transparency, we did not hide any facts from you and informed about the situation as they were. The campsite was an hour away so was also the original site but it takes 8 men and more than three hours to pitch a sleeping tent, dining tent, toilet tent, staff tent and kitchen tent. Not to mention that site needs to be cleared first and made sure that everything is safe before guests arrival. During the safari we visit many spots if there is a potential of a wildlife sighting, sometimes over and over again going back to the same place. These spots may also include where we camp. Since you are there for a wildlife experience, we made sure that you have a good sighting and does not matter if you have visited it more than once. Because of this, you had a good sighting of a mother sloth bear and cub along with other wildlife where you camped. Wildlife industry in India is small and people know each other. We have been working with the lodges for many years and feel privileged that we know the most staff personally since our job involve working with them closely. We are friends with many staff and managers but when it comes to working, we work as professionals. We do not want to hide any facts nor was the intention of leaving any negative impression on anyone. The only reason to involve the lodge into the conversation was to have transparency on the issues as we were getting contradictory views on the matter from you and the lodge. And the only way to get the facts true and straight was to bring everyone together so the issues can be addressed correctly. Since you were demanding for the refund it is imperative to involve the lodge where you stayed and they were directly responsible for all your activities and operations on the ground. We try to help every guest in whichever way possible if there is any problem. We tried to help you too and wrote a letter for your insurance company upon your request for compensation because the alternate camping site was provided. You purposely did not want us to mention that due to tiger operating in the area the campsite was shut and the new site was provided. When your claim was rejected by the insurance company, you threatened us for a refund over a bad review which we consider as blackmailing. This comes as a contradiction to the feedback you have left about your experience in Satpura in which you have clearly mentioned that it exceeded your expectation and felt like home. It was not our fault that the campsite was closed due to the presence of threatening wildlife in the area and the camping was done in the alternate site. We do not see how we are liable to make the refund. However, still, we provided you with a free sundowner and a bottle of wine. We believe in providing our guests as many services as possible to make their holiday memorable. In this regard, we provided you private jeep safari in all the parks even before the camping incident while you were entitled only for shared jeep safari. Overall we acted in your best interest to keep you safe while still providing you with our best services. We are glad to know that all the other aspects of the tour went smoothly such as accommodation at other reserves, transfers, guides, food etc. And you had good sightings of animals including tiger, leopard, sloth bear amongst other wildlife. Kind regards,

Dear Michael Thanks for your review. We are glad to hear that you enjoyed the tour. It was great to share some special sightings and secrets of the Central Indian jungle with you. We hope to welcome you once again in India. Best regards,