ATR - Day 67: Explored Melghat Tiger Reserve thoroughly; tasted tribal cuisine and met Korku people

After exploring Melghat Tiger Reserve once again, we went to Meghat Tiger Retreat, where we were treated to tribal cuisine and dance, which was a truly amazing experience.

December 06, 2023

Wednesday, 11:30 PM

Shahnoor Tourist Sankul,

Village Popatkhed, Tehsil Akot, 

District Akola, Maharashtra

India

Today, we went exploring Melghat Tiger Reserve once again, and dedicated the safari to have a thorough look at the jungle more than tracking tigers. Not that we did not look for tigers at all; we certainly did, and we did spend considerable time and energy tracking tigers, but when we did not find any despite all the effort, we decided to focus on the jungle. Melghat is definitely a great forest; and true, I am a very forest person, being a wildlife photographer and all, and for that reason I tend to like most of the forests, but this place is truly quite a different forest — very pretty, very green and so very foresty (I know that’s not a word, but “forest-like” doesn’t ring as well). 

I also met the forest department officials during the day and all of them were very welcoming and cordial.  

Later, I went to this place called Melghat Tiger Retreat on invitation, which was a great experience; also, very illuminating. They served us the delicious tribal cuisine, and we also got to see the traditional tribal dance of the Korku people, who are a Munda ethnic group found primarily in the Khandwa, Burhanpur, Betul and Chhindwara districts of Madhya Pradesh in addition to the areas around the Melghat Tiger Reserve. They speak the Korku language, which is one of the Munda languages written in Devanagri script, and is one of the 197 Indian languages that are considered endangered by UNESCO. Out of these 197, 81 are vulnerable, of which Korku is one; 63 Definitely Endangered; 6 Severely Endangered; 42 Critically Endangered; and 5 Extinct. 

Today’s Vlog has gone live slightly late, but it has indeed gone live despite connectivity issues here. The Vlog features Mummy Khurana’s experience in the tent dwelling we have at our current place of stay and also features our travel experience from Nagpur to Melghat together with the fun interaction we had with a fellow wildlife photographer and his wife at Nagpur’s Mocha Cafe on the afternoon of December 4, 2023. Do watch! And stay tuned.