I came to Jawai bandh earlier also, just before the lockdown and I have a reason to come back here again and that I am going to tell you but before that, let's know about this place.
ABOUT JAWAI BANDH
This small town comes under district pali and it was founded to build a dam on Jawai river.
In 1957 this dam was built by Raja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur and is the biggest dam in the western region of state Rajasthan.
The purpose of it is to supply water in Jodhpur and Pali district and also some villages for irrigation. Today this place became a habitat of leopards and it is getting very popular among wildlife photographers.
However, it is not easy to spot them. Check my previous video of it.
In these rocky hills natural caves formed which are home for leopards, a perfect place to camouflage for them.
LEAPORDS SIGHTING
Safari drivers are daring here. Let's assume that you don't see these big cats when you come here but I can vouch that you won't get disappointed. It is not just any other wildlife safari.
When we came here in March 2020, a female leopard had made us dance around her. We did six safaris just to have a glimpse of her. However, on our last safari, we finally saw her and clicked a lot of photographs. We also got to know that the female leopard was pregnant at that time. Guides and trekkers named her Neelam.
During the lockdown, she gave 3 babies, and to see them together we once again made the program.
However, this time Neelam did not make us dance much, maybe she knows us now :D.
On our third Safari we got to see this queen of the jungle with her 3 babies. All these safaris we did at Berda location.
As a Jungle Jawai bandh is very big and it has believed that there are roughly some 50-100 leopards. The best thing is that these animals are shy and they don't attack humans.
JUNGLE SAFARI
Apart from Leopards, you can also do a Jungle safari here. In Jungle, you can see the variety of birds and antilope. We enjoyed surfing in the Jungle.
KAMBESHWAR TEMPLE
This time we also went to KaMbeshwar Shiva temple which is like 400 years old. As we get near to the temple, we both were surprised to see 1000s of Langurs. Langurs are quite silent in comparison to Monkeys. We did a lot of photography of them and then I left to visit & bow down before Mahadev.
To reach the temple, one needs to climb roughly 500 stairs. In between I saw many langurs, I was scared of them but I found they don't say anything.
Due to the Corona pandemic, there was less crowd. There is a cave near the temple and here they believe water comes from the sacred river Ganga
ABOUT LOCALS
Local people belong to Rabri tribe and most of them are shepherds. Here you can see the full Rajasthani touch.
If leopard sees them along with their livestock, then they don't attack them. There is a bizarre agreement among both.
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed at Thour nature resort. The rough entry for this resort will give you an idea of how adventurous this leopard chasing and photography going to be.
Build-in 12 beega, they had just made 4 but wonderful tents where you won't feel any problems. The food they cook here is very delicious and most of the veggies they produce on their farm. Overall I will give a 10/10 rating to this place
BEST TIME TO VISIT
The right time to come here is in winter. That is from November till March.
HOW TO REACH HERE
By Flight - There are two options where are like from Jodhpur airport and Udaipur airport. From Jodhpur connectivity for Jawai Bandh is good. You can reach here by train or Busses or hire a taxi.
From Udaipur, in the name of connectivity, there is only one, and that is by personal taxi.
By Train - Jawai bandh is connected to trains from all major cities.
By Busses - This small town doesn't have a Bus stand. The nearest one is at Sirohi which is like 26 km from here
I hope you like this blog. Will come back with some other destination very soon. Until then have a wonderful time, stay safe, and take all possible precautions while traveling.
