Red panda tracking in India: Singalila, Neora Valley & Arunachal for wildlife travelers (Northeast India):
Red Panda is one of the most beautiful and lovely creatures of eastern Himalayas in India. Red pandas are distributed in the Himalayas of India, Nepal, Bhutan and China. From last few years people from all over the world come to India to see this magnificent creature in their natural habitat.
The Red panda tracking in India is getting famous day by day and it is now in top five wildlife tours in India after tigers, rhinos, snow leopards and birding. The interesting part of this tour is that you can club it with the great Indian one horned rhino and birding in northeast India tours. Before going into the detail information about the red panda tour in India, first let me to introduce this species to you.
Red Pandas are the members of family Ailuridae which has Red Pandas and its extinct relatives. They are found in subtropical and moist temperate forests with thick bamboo and rhododendrons. Though they are found in the eastern Himalayas from 1500 m to 4800 m, they prefer 2800 m to 3100 m in the eastern Himalayas. Though they are not much distributed in Meghalaya, it is observed that they prefer the height of 700 m to 1400 m. Instead of young forests they prefer old growth forests with big trees with plenty of holes.
In this blog we will be learning in detail about the red panda tour in India and Nepal.
Why red pandas are far harder to find than photographs suggest
Red pandas, compared to other big attractions of India are harder to find because they are arboreal and small. They prefer dense forest trees laden with moss and lichens and move from one branch to another branch. They come down only when they must climb another tree and the tree canopy is not connected or broken.
When they come down on ground, they are vulnerable to predation by common as well as clouded leopards, so they prefer to climb fast on another trees. These temperate forests are not easy to navigate unlike the tiger territory or snow leopard habitat. A snow leopard one can see from very far but in case of red panda you can see them only when you get very close to them.
Singalila Ridge vs Neora Valley vs Arunachal Pradesh — which habitat wins
All three places are good for red pandas, but Singalila near Darjeeling is operating the red panda tour from very long, so the sightings are comparatively easy in Singalila. If I have to vote for them according to the ease of sightings and the infrastructure, I will keep Singalila at the top and then Neora valley, and Arunachal at the last. In Arunachal the places where one can see the red pandas are Tawang, West Kameng and lower Dibang valley. These places are famous tourist spots and if you are already visiting these places then it is suggested to go for red pandas as well. But if you are planning only for red pandas then Singalila must visit.
Singalila is close to Darjeeling where the government runs a conservation breeding program for red pandas. These red pandas born in the conservation breeding center are later released in Singalila national park with radio collar to track them. Often these red pandas go to the Nepal side of the forests but because there is a cross-border coordination between Indian and Nepal forest department they still track them and once they feel now no need to track them, they remove the collar.
Because of ex-situ and in situ conservation and further release into the national park the population of red pandas is high in these forests. Neora valley is very well connected with the Singalila national park through forested habitat and have almost same density of red pandas but as I said earlier the better infrastructure is at Singalila. You can visit the other places for red pandas if those places are already in your itinerary.
Bamboo fruiting cycles and activity windows most guests miss
Red pandas are most active in the early morning and in late afternoon, and if you visit the field at midday, you might miss their sightings, so it is better to be ready for an early field visit. When the new shoots sprout in bamboo which is in the month of April, the red pandas switch from leaves to shoots. During winters when the shoots are not available, they come down to feed on leaves which makes their sighting easier. They also look for fruits and berries during summer and autumn.
Trekking vs jeep-based tracking
The forests where red pandas leave can be approached by trekking as well as by a land rover. There is a main road passing through the Singalila national park which reaches on top of the highest peak of west Bengal, Sandakphu. The forest on both sides of this road is the place where you can see the red pandas and because they are shy animals, you have to get down to the nearest point on the road and walk a little bit depending upon the distance of the place where the red panda has been spotted.
Bonus species: binturong, clouded leopard, Himalayan black bear
The forested habitat of red pandas also supports various species of birds and mammals of which if you get to see clouded leopards, binturong or black bears, you consider yourself super lucky. Singalila and Neora valley are best places in India to find a clouded leopard though its not easy because they are very secretive . I was lucky to see their fresh pugmarks, tried hard to find the leopard but couldn’t. Black bears are comparatively easier to see than other two. Binturong, a close relative of civets, is also very difficult to find in their habitat.
Why local community guides outperform agency guides here
Local community guides know the landscape very well. They are the ones who are born and brought up in these forested hills. On the other hand, the agency guides though very good in English and can explain things better, also can identify species but are not very good in finding red pandas and other secretive wildlife. Tracking an animal is a skill which is possessed by only people who spend their lifetime in this mountainous terrain.
Inner line permits complexity for Arunachal step-by-step.
It is mandatory for Indian visitors to get Inner line permits to visit Arunachal Pradesh, which they can obtain by visiting the government websites https://www.eilp.arunachal.gov.in/. For foreigners the protected area permit is required. This permits they can obtain from Ministry from home affairs or Indian mission abroad. It costs around USD 50 per person.
Building a Northeast circuit: Singalila, Kaziranga, and Manas
The red panda tour in India or red panda tracking in India can be club with the other attractions of northeast India which includes the Kaziranga, Manas and other destinations. You can access these destinations from Kolkata which is connected through Bagdogra by a short direct flight. From Kolkata you can either take a flight to Guwahati (for both Manas & Kaziranga) or a flight to Jorhat (for Kaziranga). Other destinations like Nameri & Pakke are also connected with these two airports.
