Why Alwar and Sariska belong together
Sariska was the hunting forest of Alwar's rulers. The city and the forest have shared a history for two and a half centuries, and they still share a road.
A royal city and its forest: the Naruka Kachwaha rulers of Alwar hunted in the hills that are now Sariska.
History and wildlife in one stop: a palace, a cenotaph and a ridge fort in the morning, a safari in the afternoon.
Facts to know
- Alwar to Sariska
- About 35 km
- Sariska to Bhangarh
- About an hour
- Siliserh lake
- About twenty minutes from Alwar
- Landscape
- Northern Aravalli hills
- Nearest airports
- Delhi and Jaipur
- On the way: Alwar lies on the main road and rail routes between Delhi and Jaipur.
- Quiet: far fewer visitors than Ranthambore or Amber, and that is much of the pleasure.
- A story of hope: Sariska's tigers were lost and brought back, one of the most important conservation stories in India.
- Add-ons nearby: Siliserh lake, the ruined town of Bhangarh and the fort hotel at Neemrana.
A kingdom carved out of the hills
Alwar is young by Rajasthani standards, but the hills around it hold far older stories of Mewati chiefs, Rajput clans and passing emperors.
Mewat: the rugged ridges between Delhi and the Rajput heartland were home to the Meos and the Khanzadas of Mewat.
Hasan Khan Mewati: rebuilt the fort on the ridge in the early sixteenth century, and died fighting beside Rana Sanga against Babur at Khanwa in 1527.
- The founder: Pratap Singh, of the Naruka branch of the Kachwahas, the clan that ruled Jaipur, established his own state in 1770.
- Builders and patrons: Bakhtawar Singh built the City Palace in 1793, and Vinay Singh was a great builder and patron of painters and calligraphers.
- Mayo College: Mangal Singh was the very first student to arrive at the college in Ajmer when it opened in 1875.
- Jai Singh: brilliant, extravagant and difficult, forced out by the British in the 1930s.
- After 1947: Alwar joined the short-lived Matsya Union in 1948 and merged into Rajasthan in 1949.
Local tip
Every taxi driver will tell you Jai Singh had his Rolls-Royces collect the city's rubbish after a slight in a London showroom. It is almost certainly untrue. Enjoy it anyway.
Alwar in a day
Stand on the far side of the Sagar tank in the late afternoon. Palace, cenotaph, steps and ridge all line up in a single frame.
The City Palace
Built: in 1793 by Raja Bakhtawar Singh, and also called Vinay Vilas.
- Still at work: much of it is used by the district administration, so the courtyards are full of clerks, lawyers and petitioners.
- The museum: on the upper floors, with illustrated manuscripts, including one on the life of Babur, Ragamala paintings, Alwar miniatures and an armoury.
- Our advice: go round with a guide. The labels are thin and the highlights easy to miss.
Moosi Maharani ki Chhatri and the Sagar
Built: in 1815 by Vinay Singh, in memory of Bakhtawar Singh and Moosi, a consort who died on his funeral pyre in the practice of sati, which India rightly outlawed.
- Its beauty: red sandstone arches below, a white marble pavilion above, its ceiling painted with scenes of myth and court life.
- The Sagar: a formal tank with steps on every side, where families come to feed the fish in the evening.
The bazaars and the milk cake
- The old markets: around the palace and the clock tower, less polished than Jaipur's and far less touristy.
- Milk cake: a grainy, caramel-brown sweet of milk slowly reduced with sugar. Every shop has its claim, and we take you to taste several.
Bala Quila, the fort on the ridge
From anywhere in Alwar, look up. A line of walls and towers runs along the ridge for kilometres. Its name means the young fort, and it is not young at all.
Older than its name: tradition credits the first stronghold to the Nikumbh Rajputs.
Passed hand to hand: the Khanzadas of Mewat, then the Mughals and regional powers, until Pratap Singh took it.
Facts to know
- Rebuilt
- 1521, by Hasan Khan Mewati
- Length
- About 5 km along the ridge
- Towers
- 15 large, 52 smaller
- Best hour
- Morning
- Before you go
- We confirm access each time
- The view: all of Alwar below, the Sagar and the palace at your feet, and the Aravallis rolling away towards Sariska.
- The road up: steep and winding through dry forest, where leopards are sometimes reported.
- How we go: in a sturdy vehicle with a driver who knows the route, in the morning, with water and a hat.
Siliserh, a lake palace for a queen
Twenty minutes from the city, a long lake fills a valley among wooded hills. On a rise above the water stands a white palace built for a queen.
Built for water: in 1845 Maharaja Vinay Singh dammed a tributary of the Ruparel to bring water to Alwar. The old aqueducts survive.
A queen's lake: the palace on its shore was built for his queen, Shila, and the lake takes her name.
- Today: a state tourism hotel, simple rather than luxurious, in a lovely setting.
- Winter birds: migratory ducks, egrets and cormorants along the shore.
- How we spend it: tea on the terrace, a boat if the lake is calm, then on to Sariska.
- Quietest: a weekday morning. Weekends fill with families from Alwar and Delhi.
The forest that lost its tigers
For years Sariska was the closest place to Delhi where you might see a wild tiger. Then, quietly, the tigers disappeared.
A royal forest: like Ranthambore, Sariska owed part of its survival to royal shikar, the hunt.
Protected: a sanctuary from the 1950s, and a tiger reserve under Project Tiger from 1978.
Facts to know
- Sanctuary
- From the 1950s
- Tiger reserve
- 1978, under Project Tiger
- Tigers gone
- Confirmed in early 2005
- The cause
- Organised poaching for skins and bones
- What followed
- A Tiger Task Force and a national tiger authority
- The poaching: through the early 2000s, poachers working with local networks killed the tigers one by one for the illegal trade.
- Not noticed in time: in early 2005 official surveys confirmed there were none left. It became a national scandal.
- What changed: a Tiger Task Force was set up, and soon afterwards the National Tiger Conservation Authority was created to oversee every reserve.
- A new way of counting: pugmark censuses gave way to camera traps and scientific monitoring.
- The lesson: a tiger reserve on a map is not the same as tigers in a forest.
How the tigers came back
In June 2008 an Indian Air Force helicopter carried a sedated tiger from Ranthambore over the hills. It was one of the boldest attempts anywhere to refill an empty forest.
The plan: capture tigers in Ranthambore, fit radio collars, fly them to Sariska and release them through enclosures into the forest.
The first: a male catalogued as ST-1, in 2008, followed by females.
- Watched daily: forest staff and scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India tracked every animal.
- Machli's line: some founders came from the family of Ranthambore's famous tigress. Read Machli the tigress.
- Hard early years: the first male was killed by poison in 2010, and critics pointed to villages in the core, grazing, a busy road and mining on the edges.
- Slow progress: some villages were resettled outside, protection improved, and cubs followed a few years after the relocation.
- Today: tigers number in the dozens and breed well, with more moved in over the years to widen the gene pool.
Local tip
If your naturalist mentions ST-1, ask about him. Hearing the story of the first tiger in the forest where it happened is worth more than any book.
A Sariska safari, and what to expect
A Sariska drive is quieter, slower and more uncertain than a Ranthambore one. Many naturalists we know prefer it for exactly that reason.
Easier permits: Sariska is less famous, so permits are usually easier and the tracks quieter.
Work for it: thicker forest and steeper hills mean animals vanish quickly. Tigers are seen by patient guests, but we never promise one.
Facts to know
- Run by
- The Rajasthan forest department
- Vehicles
- Six-seat Gypsy jeeps and larger canters
- Drives
- Early morning and late afternoon
- Season
- October to June; core closed in the monsoon
- Book
- Two drives at least, ideally three or four
- Leopards: more common than tigers, often around rocky outcrops.
- Also here: striped hyenas, jungle cats, jackals, sambar, spotted deer, nilgai and the small four-horned antelope.
- Birds: crested serpent eagles, painted spurfowl, grey francolins and owls, with migrants on the lakes in winter.
- The Kankwari plateau: open grassland below a small seventeenth-century hill fort, one of the best wildlife areas. We plan a drive there when the route is open.
- Etiquette: stay seated and quiet, never leave the track or crowd an animal, no flash. See tiger and leopard safaris.
Temples and legends in the reserve
Sariska is full of gods. Long before it was a tiger reserve, these hills were a place of pilgrimage, and many temples are still in daily worship.
Kankwari Fort
- Built: in the seventeenth century, traditionally credited to Raja Jai Singh I of Amber.
- The story: local tradition says Aurangzeb imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh here. Historians debate how long, if at all, so we tell it as the story people here tell.
Neelkanth
- What: the ruins of Rajorgarh, an old Bargujar capital, with dozens of temples usually dated to the sixth to tenth centuries.
- Still in worship: the Neelkantheshwar Mahadev temple, with superb carving, and a colossal seated Jain figure locals call Naugaza.
Pandupol
- The legend: linked with the Pandavas of the Mahabharata, and the story of Bhima breaking through the rock.
- What: a temple with a reclining Hanuman and, in the monsoon, a waterfall. We go on quieter days, away from the weekly pilgrim crowds.
Bhartrihari
- What: a temple on the road between Alwar and Sariska to the king-poet who, legend says, gave up his throne to live as an ascetic in these hills.
Bhangarh, the ruined town down the road
There is a sign at the gate of Bhangarh forbidding anyone to stay inside after sunset. It has made Bhangarh the most famous haunted place in India.
Where: about an hour south of Sariska, at the foot of the hills.
History: built in the late sixteenth century by the Kachwaha rulers of Amber, traditionally for Madho Singh, a younger brother of Man Singh I.
- What remains: a walled bazaar street of stone shops, carved temples, a terraced palace and gardens.
- The legends: a sorcerer's curse and an ascetic's shadow. We tell them as legend.
- The sign: a routine Archaeological Survey of India rule for unguarded monuments, not a ghost warning.
- When: early morning, before the weekend day-trippers arrive. Read our Bhangarh guide and Bhangarh, the haunted fort.
Where to stay
Alwar city has no great hotel of its own. The best stays are in the hills and forts around it.
Sariska Palace
- What: a hunting lodge built by a Maharaja of Alwar, now a heritage hotel near the park entrance.
- The feel: grand rather than polished. Ask for a room in the main palace.
Amanbagh, near Ajabgarh
- What: Aman's retreat of courtyards, pools and gardens in the hills between Sariska and Bhangarh.
- Best for: slow days combining Bhangarh at dawn, a safari and long walks.
Neemrana Fort-Palace
- What: a fort of 1464 restored as a hotel from 1986, on the Delhi side of Alwar.
- Book it: at the Neemrana Fort-Palace. Ask for a west-facing terrace.
Alila Fort Bishangarh
- What: a fort hotel to the south-west, about two hours from the park, on the Jaipur side.
- Book it: at Alila Fort Bishangarh. Compare more in wildlife lodges.
Two or three days, our rhythm
This is how we plan Alwar and Sariska for guests driving between Delhi and Jaipur who want to see the country in between.
Day one, Neemrana and Alwar
Morning: leave Delhi after breakfast, lunch on a terrace at Neemrana.
- Afternoon: the City Palace museum in Alwar.
- Golden hour: beside the Sagar tank and the Moosi Maharani cenotaph.
Day two, the fort, the lake and the forest
Early: Bala Quila for the view over the city.
- Late morning: tea at Siliserh.
- Afternoon: a Sariska safari, then dinner at your lodge.
Day three, Kankwari and Bhangarh
- Dawn: a safari towards the Kankwari plateau.
- Late morning: Bhangarh, then on to Jaipur or Ranthambore.
When to go
Alwar is at its best in the cool, clear months. Sariska keeps its own calendar, closing its core for the monsoon.
October to March: ideal for the city, the fort and safaris, with warm days and cool nights.
December to February: cold and sometimes foggy mornings, closer to Delhi than the desert. Pack a jacket.
- April to June: hot, often above 40 degrees, but the best for tiger sightings as animals gather at the springs and waterholes.
- July to September: the core zones close, the hills turn green and Pandupol's waterfall runs. Not the time for a wildlife trip.
- More detail: our journal on the best time for tigers.
Living with the forest
Sariska is a working landscape as much as a wild one. You will pass a herder with his buffaloes a few minutes before you find a leopard's fresh tracks.
Villages inside: herding families, many of them Gujjars, still live in villages within the reserve.
Resettlement: the forest department has moved some villages outside with compensation, a slow and difficult process.
- A public road: crosses the reserve, and pilgrims walk its roads to ancient temples.
- Two sides: talking to herders and forest guards gives a more honest picture of what it takes to keep tigers in a crowded country than any brochure.
- Don't feed the monkeys: or stop on the public road to photograph animals. It draws them onto the road.
- Ask before photographing: herders and their homes, and accept a no.
What to eat around Alwar
Ask anyone from Delhi what they bring back from Alwar, and the answer is almost always a box of milk cake.
Milk cake: also called kalakand or Alwar ka mawa, made by boiling down milk with sugar for hours until it sets into soft, crumbly slabs.
Buy it last: it is best fresh and does not keep long in the heat.
- Breakfast: hot kachori and jalebi from the sweet shops near the palace.
- Farm food: bajra or maize rotis with white butter, mustard greens with garlic and chilli, and buttermilk.
- Herders' tables: plenty of milk, curd and white butter in the villages around the reserve.
- A special evening: dinner on the lawns of your lodge, or a picnic among the temple ruins at Neelkanth. See our Rajasthani food guide.
What we tell our own cousins
Alwar is a working city and Sariska a working forest. These small things make both easier to enjoy.
Don't expect Jaipur's polish: Alwar's charm is that it is real, a little shabby and very unhurried.
Walk quietly through the palace: the courtyards are government offices on weekdays.
- Confirm Bala Quila first: access and road conditions change.
- Book winter weekends early: Delhi families fill Sariska's lodges and permits.
- Bring binoculars: Sariska's leopards and birds reward the patient.
- Avoid Pandupol's busiest days: if you want quiet roads, ask us to plan around them.
- Treat a tiger as a gift: come for the forest, the forts and the temples.
Sariska or Ranthambore, and who will love each
We are asked this every week. They are different forests with different gifts, and many of our guests end up visiting both.
Choose Ranthambore if: seeing a tiger is the main reason for your trip. Its tigers are more numerous and its open forest makes sightings easier.
Choose Sariska if: you have limited time from Delhi, value quiet over certainty, or love history as much as wildlife.
- Leopard lovers: Sariska's leopards are surprisingly reliable.
- Repeat visitors: if you have seen a tiger elsewhere, Sariska shows you a different forest and a different story.
- Not for you if: you want polished monuments, smooth paths and certain sightings.
- Both on one journey: see Big cats and birds or our short escapes from Delhi.