Trailing the tigers in India

updated 6:43 p.m. ET March 26, 2007

CORBETT NATIONAL PARK, India - I would rather be on an elephant than in front of one.

It's no fun when a wild tusker is lumbering toward you, and you are trapped in a Jeep with no choice but to drive in reverse on a muddy, twisting, hilly road flanked by a jungle on the left and a gurgling river to the right.

The heart-stopping encounter with an irritated elephant occurred barely 30 minutes after we had driven into the Corbett National Park - India's finest tiger reserve in the foothills of the Himalayas - in search of the big cats.

At the wheel was a friend, a city lad whose skills in reverse driving were limited to parking between parallel lines. Still, he did an admirable job of driving us - a shaken party of four - backward to safety behind a curve in the forested hill.

The elephant, apparently bored by our lack of sportsmanship, ambled away after a while. We were lucky. Later at a forest lodge - the staging point for tiger safaris - we saw another vehicle that had been gored the same day by a tusker, possibly the one we met. The vehicle displayed two holes in the metal grille in the front. No humans were injured.

If You Go CORBETT NATIONAL PARK AND TIGER RESERVE: Near Ramnagar, India; 011-91-97-1925-1997. GETTING THERE: Take the overnight train, the Ranikhet Express, from Delhi to Ramnagar, the nearest town to the park. From Ramnagar, hire a jeep for $15 to Dhikala forest lodge for the 30-mile journey. The Jeep and its driver will stay with you during your stay in Dhikala, and take you on two safaris every day for another $15. (Delhi to Ramnagar is about 155 miles by road but the taxi journey on the national highway, which is dug up in long stretches for widening, is difficult and takes about eight hours.) LODGINGS: If you are unable to find accommodation at Dhikala or other forest lodges, there are resorts outside Corbett National Park. If you feel like splurging, stay at the Corbett Hideaway or Corbett River View Retreat . They offer day trips into the park. OTHER WILDLIFE: Other animals that one can encounter at the park are leopard, wild boar, hog dear, Indian marsh crocodiles, peacocks, woodpecker, cormorant and a variety of snakes. WORTH VISITING: Jim Corbett Heritage Trail and Jim Corbett Museum in Choti Haldwani village, once owned by Corbett, located 20 miles from Ramnagar. SUGGESTED ROUND TRIP: For a complete holiday, take a taxi to Ranikhet after visiting Corbett National Park. Ranikhet is a picture postcard town with stunning views of the Himalayas and magnificent walks. From Ranikhet drive to Binsar, located at a height of 8,000 feet and ideal for superb treks in the hills. Stay there if possible at Khali Estate whose location on the top of a mountain provides gorgeous views. Drive down from Binsar to Sonapani, another hill resort and onward to Kathgodam in the plains to catch a train back to New Delhi.

But Rajiv Bhartari, the director of Corbett Tiger Reserve, which encompasses the national park, later told us that it is common for wild elephants to confront humans although fatal encounters are unheard of.

Still, he said, we are better off being atop an elephant while in the forest. "Besides, that's the best way to see a tiger," he said.

And nothing can be truer.

Corbett National Park is no Serengeti or Kruger. Unlike those African parks, you won't see hordes of animals under shady trees or watering holes. But tracking and spotting a tiger in the Indian jungle with an experienced guide turned out to be every bit as thrilling as homing in on a pair of cheetahs in the African grasslands.

But more of that later.

Corbett National Park, located in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, epitomizes India's success in saving the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger, the magnificent yellow-and-black striped cat found only in Asia.

A victim of hunting, poaching and human encroachment, the tigers were threatened with extinction when the global Project Tiger was launched in Corbett National Park on April 1, 1973. At the time, the tiger population in the park was 44. Across India, only about 1,800 existed, down from 40,000 at the turn of the 20th century.

Under Bhartari's stewardship, the tiger population in Corbett has increased to about 175. Overall, there are about 3,600 tigers in India but other national parks have not fared as well as Corbett and some reserves have no tigers left.

"Right now, what you see is a glorious Corbett. We have never seen anything like it. (Tiger) sightings are becoming more common," said Bhartari in an interview at the Dhikala forest lodge.

It is the largest and most frequented of the 12 lodges, operated by the state forest department, inside the 200-square-mile Corbett National Park.

The park is named after Jim Corbett, a British colonial army colonel who was born in 1875 in Nainital, not far from the sanctuary, and lived virtually all his life in India until 1847. An ardent hunter, he gave up killing for sport after witnessing a carnage of water fowl by three army officers, and dedicated his life to preserving wildlife.

The accommodations in Dhikala lodge are basic but comfortable and adequate. Only vegetarian food is available because meat leftovers and their scent attract carnivores.

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