North Bengal Travel Blog Post: LATAGURI Part II- Jungle Safari

Travel North Bengal || Places around Darjeeling || Where to go in North Bengal || Jungle safari in West Bengal || Nature Travel in West Bengal || Places to Go from NJP (New Jalpaiguri)/ Bagdogra||

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Continuing from the last post & getting straight to the point today..

The reason you choose Lataguri for your trip is, for the huge spread of Jungle. It’s forest all around. As I have informed before, this is a small town built in the mid of the forest or as per the official situation, it’s right outside the Gorumara National Park.

So the first day what we had time for was a Jungle safari. BEFORE YOU PLAN A JUNGLE SAFARI AT LATAGURI, HERE ARE THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO KEEP IN MIND:

There are 3 Jungle safaris conducted every day. One is early in the morning, second during the day and the last in the late afternoon.
Timings are as follows:
- Morning: 6-7 am
- Day: 9-10 am
- Afternoon: 2-3 pm
There are 2-3 Booking counters available with 2-3 different entrances
Safari booking is either possible online or direct from the booking counter (we didn’t do it online, we did it physically, hence I will tell you everything about later):
- You have to be present at the ticket counter one hour prior
- Reason being, number of vehicles is limited, they allow 15-20 cars at a time, hence you can book till cars are available per jeep, 6 people are allowed, either you can book the entire jeep or 2 families of 2-3 each may share with other tourists
  - Cost: ( as per Oct 2022)
    - Jeep INR 1500
    - Guide INR 300 (mandatory)
    - Park Fees INR 200 per Jeep
    - Camera (DSLR) INR 20 per camera
- Carry your ID proof
- Just for your information: From the Safari counter they arrange to drop you at your hotel at an additional cost of INR 100 or you can also find a tuk-tuk to go back to your hotel

For online booking, you may try here

However, there are a few pros and cons:

You have to book the entire jeep, no option to share if you are looking for the same
There are quite a few entrances available, you better try for the closest one on the first day, so in case you go wrong with the location, this can be a problem.

Now coming to the Safari Experience; Green, greener and greenest, off-road drive, eyes stern everywhere for one tiny sign of an elephant’s trunk or tail, deer’s horn or a whole peacock. The guide may also make you at one place if a bison was spotted somewhere, at times it’s just your jeep or 2-3 jeeps together in a line.. if the weather is good and not raining, you enjoy the jungle to its fullest.

The entire safari takes about 1.5 hours, starting and ending near the booking counter. You are all free to do more than 1-2 safaris, as many as you want, provided you are ready to pay for each of them!!

I am not a jungle person, hence one safari was enough for me.

***Stay At Lataguri:

You can stay in the resort situated inside the forest or you may stay at Lataguri town as well. There are quite a few options available. My favourite was surely the stay inside the jungle. Especially we got a lot of rain every evening, and that made our stay even more intriguing inside the jungle. However as the resort staff had mentioned, we never got to encounter any elephant early in the morning; except peacocks, a lot of them and monkeys who look for slightest of the chance to enter your room and sneak some food out.

So this was about Jungle Safari, next will be my day-long sightseeing from Lataguri.. Hope you are finding this series interesting.. Do leave a comment whenever you feel..