What a safari
in India actually costs
There are two prices for the same drive and almost nobody publishes the first one. The state forest department sets what it costs to take a jeep into a reserve, and those charges are public and modest. What a lodge or an operator then charges you is a different number, several times larger, and the gap is never explained.
This page sets the two side by side, park by park, with the source for each. We sell wildlife trips, so we are not a neutral party. We are also the party with the rate cards, and the figures below are the ones we are actually quoted.
Three things decide what you pay. A permit to enter, bought for the vehicle. A guide, who is compulsory. And the jeep. Every state prices those three differently, and the state, not the park, is what sets the rate.
Madhya Pradesh, at government rates
| Entry permit, whole vehicle | Rs 2,400 to Rs 3,000 |
| Entry permit, single seat | Rs 400 |
| Guide, compulsory, per safari | Rs 480 to Rs 600 |
| One drive at government rates, the whole jeep | Rs 2,880 to Rs 3,600 |
Rs 2,400 on an ordinary date and Rs 3,000 on a premium date, which is how Madhya Pradesh prices peak demand. A single seat is Rs 400, or Rs 500 on a premium date.
What you pay depends on the guide’s grade: Rs 600 for a G-1 and Rs 480 for a G-2. The reserve’s own FAQ still shows an older Rs 360; the gazette supersedes it.
One permit covers one zone for one round. Maximum six people per vehicle, not counting the guide and the driver. Madhya Pradesh publishes NO state-wide Gypsy hire rate: each reserve sets its own, and Satpura’s runs from Rs 1,800 to Rs 3,600 depending on the route. Budget for the vehicle separately and confirm it with the lodge.
A foreign national pays DOUBLE for a vehicle safari in a core tourist zone: the 2021 gazette sets it at twice the Indian fee, so about Rs 6,000 for the vehicle and Rs 1,000 for a single seat.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Maharashtra, at government rates
| Entry permit, whole vehicle | Rs 1,800 to Rs 8,800 |
| Guide, compulsory, per safari | Rs 700 |
| Registered jeep, per safari | Rs 3,300 |
| One drive at government rates, the whole jeep | Rs 5,800 to Rs 12,800 |
Maharashtra moves the core entry fee by day of the week AND by how far ahead you book, so booking early costs MORE: Rs 1,800 for a weekday taken inside 59 days rising to Rs 8,800 for a weekend booked 60 to 120 days out. Buffer entry is Rs 2,300 on a weekday and Rs 3,300 at the weekend, with a Rs 3,000 vehicle fee, for totals of Rs 6,000 and Rs 7,000.
The guide and the gypsy are fixed; only the entry fee moves. Core zones close on Tuesdays and buffer zones on Wednesdays, which is two different off days in one reserve. Full-day permits exist and are expensive: Rs 50,000 in the buffer for Indian nationals, Rs 70,000 for foreign nationals. The fee is the same at every gate of the same type: Maharashtra does not price by zone.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Rajasthan, at government rates
| Entry permit, per person | Rs 1,359 |
Rs 1,359 a head in a Gypsy and Rs 917 a head in a Canter for Indian nationals; Rs 2,253 and Rs 1,811 for foreign nationals. A Gypsy takes six and a Canter twenty, so a full jeep of Indian nationals pays the state about Rs 8,150. The per-person basis is set by the Wildlife (Protection) (Rajasthan) Amendment Rules 2023, whose entrance table is headed “total fee per person per visit” with a separate per-vehicle fee beside it.
No total is shown here because the state publishes no guide charge alongside these figures. ⚠ Rajasthan raises these rates 10% every two years under the same rules, so check the booking card before you quote.
A foreign national is quoted Rs 15,500 for the same jeep.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
| Entry permit, per person | Rs 165 |
Rs 165 for an Indian national, Rs 1,010 for a foreign national and Rs 65 for a student. Under-fives go free. A video camera is Rs 890 or Rs 1,320; a still camera is free. ⚠ These rates rise 10% every two years under the 2023 rules, which is why older pages still quote Rs 130 and Rs 830. Keoladeo is covered on foot, by bicycle or by cycle-rickshaw with a rickshaw-puller the park has trained as a guide, and one permit covers the full day from 06:00 to 17:00. Bringing a vehicle in carries its own fee, Rs 370 for a car and Rs 60 for a two-wheeler or e-rickshaw.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Uttarakhand, at government rates
| Entry permit, whole vehicle | Rs 3,380 |
| Guide, compulsory, per safari | Rs 1,000 |
| Registered jeep, per safari | Rs 2,700 to Rs 4,500 |
| One drive at government rates, the whole jeep | Rs 7,080 to Rs 8,880 |
Rs 3,380 covers the whole jeep for a day permit. One foreign national on the permit puts EVERYONE on the foreign rate of Rs 6,680, which is worth knowing before you make up a party.
The Gypsy rate goes by zone. Dhikala sells no day jeep permits at all: it is a canter or an overnight forest rest house, nothing else. Mobile phones are banned in the core tourism zones under a Supreme Court order.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Uttar Pradesh, at government rates
| Entry permit, per person | Rs 250 |
| Registered jeep, per safari | Rs 4,000 |
Rs 250 a head for an Indian national and Rs 2,000 for a foreign national, per trip.
Uttar Pradesh charges a fee per head AND a vehicle hire, so there is no single jeep price. The vehicle takes seven and costs Rs 4,000 leaving from Dudhwa National Park or Rs 5,000 from the Dudhwa Tourism Premises, and the guide and road fees are already inside it. Four Indian nationals therefore pay the state Rs 5,000 between them; four foreign nationals pay Rs 12,000.
A foreign national is quoted Rs 14,500 to Rs 16,000 for the same jeep, more than double.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Karnataka, at government rates
| Entry permit, per person | Rs 1,500 |
Karnataka sells a seat, not a jeep. Rs 1,500 a head on the jeep for anyone over 12 and Rs 750 for a child of 3 to 12; the bus is Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. A lens over 200mm is charged Rs 1,770 including GST.
This is the opposite of the central Indian parks: two people pay half what four do, so there is no group discount built into the arithmetic. Kakanakote is the Kabini gate and the only one selling online, 15 days ahead with a 48-hour cutoff. The portal publishes ONE tariff with no separate foreign rate.
A foreign national is quoted Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,500 by the lodge, though the state itself publishes no separate foreign rate.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
Kerala, at government rates
| Entry permit, whole vehicle | Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,850 |
Kerala prices the whole jeep for a one-hour safari: Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,850 for Indian nationals and Rs 4,650 to Rs 5,000 for foreign nationals. A seat on the bus is Rs 400, Rs 225 for a child and Rs 800 for a foreign national.
⚠ Kerala Tourism advertises Rs 110 and Rs 300 for Muthanga, but that is a per-person ENTRY fee with "Jeep Charge Extra" on the same line, not a safari price, so the two are not comparable. Take the figures above from the forest department’s portal, which issues the ticket. Tholpetty currently has online booking switched off.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
| Entry permit, per person | Rs 255 |
Periyar is a BOAT, not a jeep. The lake cruise is Rs 255 an adult and Rs 85 a child. ⚠ THAT IS NOT THE WHOLE TICKET: park entry and a shuttle bus to the boat landing are both compulsory and charged on top. Entry is Rs 30 for an Indian adult and Rs 335 for a foreign adult, so a foreign visitor pays at least Rs 590 before the shuttle, not Rs 255.
Each cruise carries 120 seats and only about a fifth of them are released for online booking, so arriving on the day and expecting a seat is not a plan in season. The reserve also runs guided treks, two of which are led by former poachers who now work as its guides.
Source: the state's own permit portal, read 2026-09-21.
What a lodge charges
These are the figures lodges we work with quote us for one drive. They are not the only prices available and they are not our selling price. Read them as the going rate at the properties worth staying in.
Note the unit. Most parks price the whole jeep, so the cost splits across your party and a couple pays what six would. Kabini and Chambal price per person instead, which changes the arithmetic completely.
| Park | One drive | Priced for |
|---|---|---|
| Kanha Madhya Pradesh | Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 | the jeep, up to 6 Varies by lodge to lodge, and weekday against weekend. A foreign national pays DOUBLE for a vehicle safari in a core tourist zone: the 2021 gazette sets it at twice the Indian fee, so about Rs 6,000 for the vehicle and Rs 1,000 for a single seat. |
| Tadoba Maharashtra | Rs 8,200 to Rs 14,300 | the jeep Varies by which zone the lodge sells you and what it adds on top. The STATE charges the same at every gate of the same type; the spread is the lodges’.. |
| Pench Madhya Pradesh | Rs 14,500 to Rs 15,500 | the jeep, up to 6 Varies by weekday against weekend. |
| Sariska Rajasthan | Rs 12,500 | the jeep, up to 6 Varies by a flat rate for Indian nationals. A foreign national is quoted Rs 15,500 for the same jeep. |
| Dudhwa Uttar Pradesh | Rs 6,500 to Rs 8,000 | the jeep, up to 4 Varies by the zone: Kishanpur is cheaper than Dudhwa and Sathiyana. A foreign national is quoted Rs 14,500 to Rs 16,000 for the same jeep, more than double. |
| Velavadar Gujarat | Rs 9,500 | the jeep, up to 5 Varies by a flat rate for Indian nationals. A foreign national is quoted Rs 19,500 for the same jeep, more than double. |
| Kabini Karnataka | Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 | each person Varies by the canter and boat is cheaper than the jeep. A foreign national is quoted Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,500 by the lodge, though the state itself publishes no separate foreign rate. |
| Chambal Uttar Pradesh | Rs 5,050 | each person Varies by one rate whether you take the river, the wetland or the blackbuck drive. |
| Simlipal Odisha | Rs 11,000 | the jeep, up to 4 Varies by a flat rate into Simlipal. |
What the difference buys
The honest answer is: mostly the permit, and mostly because it is scarce rather than because it is dear.
Every reserve caps the number of vehicles allowed into each zone on each round. At Kanha, across all four core zones, sixty-seven jeeps can be booked online for a morning drive and fifty-four for an evening one. They go on sale on a fixed date months ahead. A lodge that holds permits for its guests is holding something a visitor often simply cannot buy on the day.
The rest is a vehicle that is the lodge's own rather than whichever registered jeep is free at the gate, and a naturalist who knows the zone riding alongside the forest guide the rules require. The forest guide comes off a roster and cannot be chosen. A naturalist who knows where the animal was yesterday is the difference between driving through a forest and finding something in it.
Where this leaves you. If you are two people, the jeep is the expensive part of the day and it costs the same whether two or six of you ride in it. If you are four or six, a wildlife trip is far cheaper per head than the headline suggests. And if the park is a busy one in a busy month, the permit is the thing to secure first and the room second.
Our own wildlife trips carry the drive inside the price: the permit, the vehicle and a naturalist, in one figure with taxes in, and nothing to settle at the gate.
Why it is so hard to find a straight number
Because a lot of what ranks is not official. Corbett Tiger Reserve publishes a list of nineteen unauthorised websites using its name without permission, under the heading "Protect yourself from booking scams by booking directly through the ONLY official Corbett Tiger Reserve website". Several of them outrank the real one.
It is not only the imitators, and it is not only the imitators' fault. The website Kerala Tourism still prints as the Wayanad sanctuary's own, wayanadsanctuary.org, is today a Portuguese-language online casino. Kanha's own reserve site, the address printed inside the government's own visitor FAQ, now redirects to a parked domain. Madhya Pradesh publishes two different guide fees on one portal. Gujarat states its foreign permit fee, its booking window and its winter timings two ways each, all on its own site. Uttar Pradesh publishes no entry fee for the Chambal sanctuary at all, and Kerala Tourism still advertises a Wayanad jeep safari at a tenth of what the forest department actually charges for it. Rajasthan publishes Sariska's figures without saying whether they are per seat or per vehicle, and the two readings are six times apart. So a great many of the numbers you will find online come from somewhere with an interest in the answer.
So the rule we use here: a number goes on this page with the address it came from and the date a person read it, or it does not go on. Where two official sources disagree, we say so rather than pick the one we like. Where nothing official exists, we say that too.
Before you pay anyone, including us, check the reserve's own site. Corbett's is corbettgov.org; Madhya Pradesh sells through forest.mponline.gov.in; Gujarat through girlion.gujarat.gov.in.
Common questions
- How much does an Indian safari usually cost?
- Less than most people are quoted, and it comes in two halves. The state forest department sets the entry charges, and they are modest: in Madhya Pradesh a core-zone permit is Rs 2,400 and a compulsory guide is Rs 480 or Rs 600 depending on grade, so the state’s own charges for a jeep of six come to about Rs 3,000 before the vehicle, which each reserve prices itself. A drive arranged through a lodge costs several times that, commonly Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 a jeep in the central Indian parks. Both figures are for the whole vehicle, not per person, so the cost of a drive splits across your party.
- Is a jeep safari priced per person or per vehicle?
- Per vehicle, in most Indian reserves. The permit is bought for the jeep and the jeep takes up to six people, so two people pay what six would pay. This is the single biggest thing people get wrong when budgeting, and it is why a wildlife trip is cheaper per head for a group of friends or a family than for a couple. There are exceptions: Kabini in Karnataka and the Chambal river sanctuary both price per person.
- Why does a lodge charge more than the official permit fee?
- Because the permit is only one of four things a drive needs, and it is the scarce one. Permits go on sale months ahead and the number of vehicles allowed into each zone on each round is capped by the forest department, so a lodge holding permits for its guests is holding something a visitor often cannot buy. On top of that the lodge supplies its own vehicle rather than whichever registered jeep is free at the gate, and its own naturalist riding alongside the forest guide the rules require. The forest guide is allotted off a roster and cannot be chosen.
- Do foreign nationals pay more for an Indian safari?
- It depends on which charge you mean. Almost always, and often by a lot. Madhya Pradesh sets the foreign fee for a core vehicle safari at double the Indian one. Gujarat prices foreign entry at Velavadar in US dollars rather than rupees. Karnataka is the gentlest we see: its portal publishes one tariff with no separate foreign rate at all.
- Can I book an Indian safari myself and skip the lodge?
- You can, through the state forest department portal, and for a quiet park on a quiet week it works. It gets hard in the parks people actually want. The vehicle quota per zone per round is small, permits go on sale on a fixed date months ahead, one permit covers only one zone, and you still have to find a registered vehicle at the gate on the morning. That is the assembly a lodge or an operator is actually being paid for.
- How do I know a safari booking site is official?
- Check the reserve’s own site, and be aware that the imitators rank well. Corbett Tiger Reserve publishes a list of nineteen unauthorised websites using its name without permission, and warns visitors to book only through its own address. Madhya Pradesh sells permits through forest.mponline.gov.in and Gujarat through girlion.gujarat.gov.in. If a site quotes you a permit price far above the published government figure, or will not tell you which zone and round the permit is for, that is the moment to stop.
- What is included in an Indiaesque wildlife trip?
- A stay of a stated length at a hand-picked lodge, the meals the property serves, and at least one drive with the permit, the vehicle and a naturalist inside the price. One figure, all taxes in, no permit for you to chase and nothing added at the gate. Each trip page lists exactly what its price carries and what it does not.
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