November 26-27 (Thanksgiving Day in the United States), 2025
Five or six hours after we left Keoledeo National Park, located approximately mid-way between Jaipur and Agra, we finally arrived at Rathambore National Park, It looks like a short distance on the map below, and it is--just a little over 150 miles--but we were driving through lots of small villages and the pace was agonizingly slow.
Ranthambore NP is large--515 square miles--and was established first as a game sanctuary in 1955 at about 1/5 of its current size, but then was declared as a Project Tiger reserve as part of a wildlife conservation program in 1974. In 1980 it was named a national park.
The tiger population in India has doubled since the early 1970s, but at about 3,700 tigers, it is still woefully short of the estimated 40,000 tigers that roamed the country at the end of the 19th century. Without Project Tiger, tigers would likely be extinct, at least in India, which has almost 75% of the world's wild tiger population. Today there are 57 protected areas in India that have been designated as tiger preserves.
It was getting to be late, so our driver took us directly to our place of residence for the next few days, the Khem Villas, located ten minutes from the reserve. The place consists of eight luxury cottages, ten tents, and four double rooms. Our group of three couples had tents, but not exactly the kind of tents you think of when you hear that word.
The approach to the Villas is a long, private drive flanked by the property's gardens where they grow much of the food they serve to guests in the all-vegetarian meals. There is a lot of fencing around the gardens, which I assume is to keep wildlife scavengers out.
And here is the local bakery--but I don't think you want what they are baking . . .
Cow dung cakes, stacked five high after they are dried out and sold as fuel for cooking and heating.
