Jim Corbett National Park Travel Guide

Jim Corbett National Park, in the Kumaon foothills of Uttarakhand, is India's oldest national park and one of North India's most established tiger reserves. It combines forest, grassland and the Ramganga river, and its several safari zones each have a different character and a different level of booking demand, from the well-known Dhikala zone deep inside the park to quieter buffer zones on its edges.

Safaris run by jeep or, in the core Dhikala zone, sometimes by canter, at set morning and afternoon slots, with permits allocated by zone. Besides tigers, the park holds elephants, leopards and a long list of birds, and a sighting is never guaranteed on any single safari, so several drives across a stay improve your odds considerably.

The park is typically open from mid-November to mid-June and closes through the monsoon, when the reserve is inaccessible. The hotter months toward the end of the season, April to June, often bring animals to open water sources and can improve sightings, at the cost of higher daytime temperatures. Two to three days allows for multiple safaris across different zones, which meaningfully improves your chances over a single rushed visit.