Pench Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra) | Live Safari Availability

About Pench Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra)

The northern slice of Pench, straddling the Madhya Pradesh border. The forests that inspired Kipling's Jungle Book, with sal, teak and bamboo and the Pench river running through.

Area (Maharashtra side): ~257 km²
Best season: Oct – Jun
Nearest city: Nagpur (~90 km)
Sessions per day: Morning, Afternoon

Gates: Khubala (Core) · Sillari (Core) · Chorbahuli (Core) · Khursapar (Core) · Surewani (Buffer) · Banera (Buffer)

Tap any green slot to book it on WhatsApp. We confirm the gate, date and session in one chat.

Available Waitlist / RAC Booked ClosedM = morning · A = afternoon · MD = mid-day

Pench Tiger Reserve

6 gates · 30 days

Gate	Sat17Oct	Sun18Oct	Mon19Oct	Tue20Oct	Wed21Oct	Thu22Oct	Fri23Oct	Sat24Oct	Sun25Oct	Mon26Oct	Tue27Oct	Wed28Oct	Thu29Oct	Fri30Oct	Sat31Oct	Sun01Nov	Mon02Nov	Tue03Nov	Wed04Nov	Thu05Nov	Fri06Nov	Sat07Nov	Sun08Nov	Mon09Nov	Tue10Nov	Wed11Nov	Thu12Nov	Fri13Nov	Sat14Nov	Sun15Nov
KhubalaCore	M2 A3	M3 A3	Gate Closed	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	Gate Closed	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	Gate Closed	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3	Gate Closed	M3 A3	MWLAWL	MWLA1	M2 A3	M3 A3	M3 A3
SillariCore	M18 A15	MWLAWL	M21 A18	M18 A26	Gate Closed	M27 A20	M22 A19	M14 A18	M24 A27	M26 A28	M26 A22	Gate Closed	M25 A28	M30 A24	M27 A28	M19 A28	M28 A30	M29 A29	Gate Closed	M30 A26	M26 A29	M28 A24	M23 A27	M28 A17	MWLAWL	Gate Closed	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	M4 A8	M21 A24
ChorbahuliCore	M11 A8	M7 A10	M10 A11	M10 A11	M11 A8	Gate Closed	M11 A10	M11 A10	M11 A11	M12 A11	M10 A11	M11 A11	Gate Closed	M12 A12	M11 A12	M10 A10	M12 A12	M12 A12	M11 A12	Gate Closed	M12 A12	M12 A11	Gate Closed	M11 A12	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	Gate Closed	MWLAWL	M8 A7	M10 A11
KhursaparCore	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	Gate Closed	M7 A9	M10 A18	MWLA4	MWLA8	M7 A4	M16 A18	Gate Closed	M18 A5	M21 A20	M16 A17	M9 A16	M12 A14	M19 A21	Gate Closed	M22 A17	M23 A21	M19 A21	M19 A23	M7 A13	M10AWL	Gate Closed	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	MWLAWL	MWLA12
SurwaniBuffer	M2 A2	M2 A2	Gate Closed	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	Gate Closed	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	Gate Closed	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	Gate Closed	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2
Banera	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M1 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2	M2 A2

Plan your visit to Pench Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra)

Best time to visit

Open October to June, with the best tiger and wild dog (dhole) sightings from March to June. The Jungle Book landscape is at its most photogenic in the dry months, while winter is greener and cooler.

How to reach

Nagpur airport is about 90 km from the Sillari gate, which makes Pench the easiest Maharashtra reserve to reach by air. Nagpur is also the nearest major railhead.

Before you book

Book the core gates (Sillari, Khubala, Chorbahuli, Khursapar) early; the buffer gates Surewani and Banera are easier to get.
Reserve on the Maharashtra Forest portal up to 120 days ahead, with a small Tatkal quota near the date.
Carry the government photo ID used in your booking.
Check the weekly closed day for your chosen gate when you book.

Frequently asked

How do I find an available safari slot quickly?

Use the Reserve dropdown to focus on one park, then scan the matrix for green pills. Those are the gate, date and session combinations with vehicles still available, and the number on each pill is how many vehicles are still open.

What do the colours and labels mean?

Green with a number: vehicles still available, and the number is how many.
Amber "WL": Reservation Against Cancellation or Waitlist. You can register and take a slot if a booking is cancelled.
Red "✕": fully booked.
Grey "Gate Closed": that gate is not operating that day. When both morning and afternoon are closed, the cell shows one combined label.

How do I see different dates on a phone?

Swipe the matrix left or right. The Gate column on the left stays in place while you scroll through the date columns, so you always know which gate you are looking at.

Can I narrow the matrix down to just what I want?

Yes. Use the filters above the matrix to pick a Reserve, a specific Date, a Status (e.g. only Available), or type part of a gate name. Cells that do not match a Status filter are dimmed instead of removed, so you keep your bearings.

What do M and A in each cell mean?

M is the morning safari session, A is the afternoon session. Most parks run two sessions per day. The pills on top show morning, the ones below show afternoon.

Which gate should I pick for the best chance of a tiger?

The Recent sightings section ranks every reporting gate by how many animals were logged there over the last 30 days, next to how many of those days produced a sighting at all. Consistency and volume are different things: a gate can post a big total from two exceptional drives while another produces something on most days. The ranking refreshes with the data, so read the top rows rather than relying on a gate's reputation.

Should I book a morning or an evening safari?

Every gate in the sightings ranking has a Best drive column worked out from where that gate's own sightings actually came from. It only names a drive when one side leads the other by a clear margin, and says Both when the split is close. The difference can be large: some buffer gates produce roughly twice as much in the evening as they do at dawn.

What do the green squares in the day-by-day grid mean?

Each square is one gate on one day, and every chip inside it is one sighting: the name of the animal where the guide identified one, otherwise the species. A tigress seen with her cubs reads as her name and a +4 badge, so a family stays one sighting instead of five. Where a day holds more sightings than fit, a +n chip closes the cell; click it to open the rest in place, and hover the square for the full morning and evening breakdown. Darker green means more separate sightings that day, on a fixed scale so a quiet month cannot repaint two sightings as a busy day. A pale empty square means nothing was logged.

How accurate are the sighting counts?

They are a record of what was reported from safari drives, not a census. A gate with no entry on a day may still have had animals; it only means nothing was reported. Counts are read conservatively, so a report naming a tigress with four cubs counts as five animals while an unnumbered mention of cubs counts as one.

What is the difference between Core and Buffer zones?

Core zones are the strictly protected interior of the reserve where only limited safari activity is permitted. Buffer zones surround the core and have mixed-use forest with safari access. Tiger sightings are still common, and slots are usually easier to get.