Safari drives
Nine gates within ninety minutes, across core and buffer. You can take morning, evening or full-day drives. We arrange permits, jeeps and drivers before you arrive.
Tadoba-Andhari · Maharashtra
Red Earth Tadoba
Nineteen cottages on the quiet side of tiger country.
SettingKolsa zone, buffer forest on three sides
StayNineteen cottages, each with a wade pool
SafariFour uncluttered gates within 25 minutes
RhythmEarly starts, slow returns
Where We Sit
We chose the quiet side of the forest.
Most of Tadoba's lodges crowd around its best-known gates. Red Earth Tadoba sits apart, in the Kolsa zone, with buffer forest on three sides and far fewer vehicles on the tracks around us.
The day follows the forest. You leave before first light on safari and come back mid-morning with something to talk about. Then comes the long, slow middle of the day: the wade pool, a book, the pond below the bamboo bridge. After that, the evening drive, dinner under thatch, and the nightjars.
The Stay
What a Tadoba stay is made of.
Six things, held together by early mornings and a lot of patience.
Naturalists
“A tiger is the easy part. The alarm call that told us it was coming - that is the guiding.” Our naturalists read tracks, calls and warnings, and they set the pace of the drive to suit you.
The buffer
Guests ask for core permits, and our naturalists often ask for buffer. Across much of the core, prey is thin and water is far apart. At the edge, grassland and grazing keep predators close. The line between the two was drawn for administration, and the tigers cross it every day.
The cottages
Thatch roofs, lime-washed walls, deep verandahs and a private wade pool. Each cottage opens into bamboo and neem rather than onto concrete. You wake to jungle fowl, not to a neighbour.
The table
Tea goes out to the deck before the jeeps leave, and breakfast waits for you when they return. Vegetables come from our own patch where the season allows, and the rest from the villages around us. The kitchen follows the season, not a menu card.
Beyond the tiger
Sloth bear, leopard, wild dog and gaur. A marsh crocodile on the bank at noon, papilio butterflies over the lantana, and more than two hundred species of birds, which surprise people who came only for the big cats.
No forest makes promises. This one keeps more of them than most.Red Earth Tadoba
Monsoon
The core closes. Our gates don't.
When the core rests for the monsoon, the buffer stays open, and three of our four nearest gates are buffer. The forest turns green almost overnight, the dust goes, and the crowds go with it.
Gallery
The lodge, the forest, the field.
Enquire
Plan your time in Tadoba.
Tell us your dates and how many of you are coming. We'll hold the cottages, apply for safari permits, and plan your drives around the season, whether that means core or buffer, mornings or a full day. Permits are limited, so the earlier you write, the more choice you have.
Travel agents and groups: see our trade resources.