Asian Lion

You Depart London by Air India For a direct flight to Ahmedabad in the state of Gujrat India.

Reach at about 10 A.M. at Ahmedabad International Airport. Our ground staff will meet & receive you at the airport. We will have breakfast at the river-facing Cama Park Plaza, where your bird list will begin with many garden birds in the hotel premises and waterside birds along the Sabarmati River. After breakfast we will move onwards for our first wildlife destination Bhavnagar. The Journey is approx. 200 K. M. & will take about 4 hrs. We reach Bhavnagar at about 5 P.M. Check in at The Nilambag Palace Hotel a Heritage property & rest for the evening to over come jetlag.

We will have Morning & Evening game drives at Velavadar National Park. Blackbuck National Park Velavadar in the Bhal region of Saurashtra is a unique grassland ecosystem that has attracted fame for the successful conservation of the blackbuck, the wolf and the lesser florican. Once found in open plains throughout the country and the state of Gujarat. Its largest population at present occurs in Velavadar N. P. This exclusively Indian animal is perhaps the most graceful and beautiful of its kind. It has ringed horns that have a spiral twist of three to four turns and are up to 70 cm long. The body’s upper parts are black and the under parts and a ring around the eyes are white.. The wolf and the jackals are the main predators in the park. More than 1500 Blackbucks are found within the park.

Early Morning after having breakfast we will move to Gir National Park by Road,which is about 200 K.M from Bhavnagar & will take about 5 Hrs to reach. We will have Lunch at Gondal at the Riverside Palace/Orchard Palace. It’s a heritage hotel good for birding with many species coming in to the orchards and on the river-shores. After Lunch we proceed to Gir National Park & Check in at Taj or similar. We will try to take an Evening Game safari.

Morning Evening game Safari. The Indian lion is another name for the Asiatic lion Panthera Leo persica, the sub-species that once ranged from Greece to central India. Before they were completely wiped out, the lions came under the protection of the Nawab of Junagadh, a local monarch, who banned all lion hunting in the area. Soon, the lion population began to rise in number. By the declaration of Indian independence in 1947, the government had come to realize the importance and fragile nature of this last bastion of the Asiatic lion, and the Nawab’s conservation policy was upheld. Naturalists were assigned to study and take a census of the Gir’s lion population. At that time there were around 200 lions. The Indian government then created the Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary - collectively known as the Gir Protected Area (PA), covering over 1000 km². The area is made up of dry scrubland with hills, rivers, and teak forest. In addition to the lion population, the Gir PA contains leopards, antelope, deer, jackals, hyenas, and marsh crocodiles. The largest Asiatic lion on record measured 2.9 m from nose to tail-tip & the current population is in excess of 300.

Morning Evening Game drive.

After morning Game drive we drive to Zainabad the Little Rann of Kutch (280 K.M.) A safari through the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary in the Little Rann of Kutch in northwest of Gujrat. A safari through this region gives one a chance to come face to face with a wide variety of birds and other wildlife. A safari through the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary is a unique experience. A wildlife safari through this region gives one a chance to come face to face with a wide variety of birds and other wildlife. Besides the Wild Ass, the sanctuary is home to a host of other animals and nearly 350 different species of birds, including the common crane, pelican and the lesser flamingo. Apart from this, one can also get a rare insight into the lifestyles of the numerous ethnic groups and local tribes, which live in and around the Rann.

Interestingly, the Little Rann gets a fair number of winged visitors in the winter months. Among these, the blue-tailed bee-eater that comes all the way from Europe, the common crane and the demoiselle crane from Siberia, the ceraneous vulture from Egypt and the houbara bustard from Iran and Iraq are the ones most commonly sighted.

Morning Evening Game drive

Morning Evening Game drive

After early break fast we leave for Ahmedabad international Airport to catch our onward flight to London. (Zainabad – Ahmedabad is 100 K.M. 2 Hrs Drive)