RIVER SAFARI

The River Chambal is best explored on boats, and the River Safari provides spectacular opportunities to view the wildlife. The boatman, are particularly skilled at cutting the boats engines, and manoeuvring as close to the birds and animals as possible, without disturbing them. Trained naturalists accompany visitors and provide expert information on the varied flora and fauna of the Chambal.

The boats cruise along the river, with the ravines and rising up around them, or giving way to gently rolling fields. The large reptiles can be found all along the way basking in the sunshine on the small rocky islands in the river, while the dolphins, usually in pairs, splash in and out of the river as they come up for air.

Many small white washed shrines, clings atop the highest reaches of the ravines, with the tall pennants bent double in the strong winds that blow through the valley. Goats and cattle gain precarious hold and chew away at every blade of grass, the ravines produce. Of particular interest of the watermarks that can be seen along the highest ravines; an indication of the power and the force of this river in spate during the monsoon period.

The boatman and naturalists are all local residents that have been trained and given livelihood options that have them appreciate the National Chambal Sanctuary and provide the means of sustainable and mutually beneficial coexistence with the wildlife.