Gir National Park Travel Guide: Lion Safaris, Rules and Planning

Gir is a wildlife destination first and a sightseeing one second. Most visitors stay near Sasan Gir, the gateway village, where the reception centre and the Forest Department's Sinh Sadan campus are. The forest has several separate safari areas, each with its own timetable and closed day, and Somnath and Junagadh are the usual add-ons.

Gir Jungle Safari

The main safari runs in open gypsies on the forest's tracks, led by a trained eco-guide. Each gypsy takes a maximum of six visitors plus one child aged 3 to 12. The Forest Department's timetable is 6.30 to 9.30 am and 3 to 6 pm in winter (16 October to the end of February) and 6 to 9 am and 4 to 7 pm in summer (1 March to 15 June), with a 9 am to noon slot in both. It is closed from 16 June to 15 October. The forest has more than 300 resident and migratory bird species.

Devalia Safari Park

Devalia, also called the Gir Interpretation Zone, is a fenced 412-hectare area that the Forest Department says holds almost all the representative wildlife and forest types of Gir: Asiatic lions, leopards, spotted deer, sambar and blackbuck. It has three safari routes and runs by minibus from the Devalia reception or by gypsy with an eco-guide from Sinh Sadan. It is open in the monsoon, winter and summer, and closed every Wednesday. It lies about 12 to 13 km from Sasan.

Sinh Sadan, the orientation centres and the Arboretum

The Forest Department has built orientation centres at Sinh Sadan, Sasan and Devalia, with life-size models and a birdcall board, and souvenir shops at Sinh Sadan and Devalia. The Gir Arboretum and Birding Point is a garden of native medicinal plants with labelled specimens and, in the department's words, an excellent birding site, where flycatchers, babblers, woodpeckers, drongos and birds of prey can be seen.

Ambardi Safari Park

Ambardi lies on the Shetrunji river about 7 km from Dhari, in the eastern extension of the Gir forest. The 365-hectare park shelters Asiatic lions, leopards, chinkara and nilgai, and visitors tour by non-air-conditioned bus or by gypsy. It is closed every Tuesday, and its lions live outside the national park's core.

Girnar Nature Safari, Junagadh

The Girnar forest near Junagadh is a separate sanctuary, which the Forest Department says is home to more than 50 free-ranging Asiatic lions. Safaris run in open gypsies, carrying at most six visitors plus one child, on a winter timetable from 16 October and a summer one from 1 March. The sanctuary is closed from 16 June to 15 October, and during the Girnar Parikrama and the Mahashivratri festival.

Somnath and Junagadh

Gujarat Tourism lists Somnath, Uparkot Fort and Mahabat Khan's tomb among the places near Gir. Somnath is believed to be the place where the first of the twelve jyotirlingas emerged, and is open from 6.30 am to 9 pm, with a nightly sound-and-light show. Uparkot Fort is believed to date from 319 BC, with the 41-metre Adi Kadi Vav stepwell and the 52-metre Navghan Kuvo well inside. See our Dwarka and Somnath guide.

• Book only on the Forest Department's official website, girlion.gujarat.gov.in. It says it is the only official booking website and warns against fraudulent sites that sell confirmed permits at a premium. Tatkal or urgent bookings are not allowed.
• One e-permit covers up to six adults and one child aged 3 to 12 on one route in one slot. Each visitor's name, ID type and ID number go in at booking, and a person can hold only one e-permit per slot per day.
• Carry original photo ID to the reception centre: Aadhaar, PAN, driving licence or voter ID, and the original passport for foreign visitors. Entry is refused without it.
• The permit terms ask you to report 30 minutes before the slot, and the Do's page says at least 15; go early. A late arrival cancels the permit with no refund.
• An eco-guide is allotted by the authority, and the guide is mandatory. The route is given by permit number when you report at the reception centre. Guide and vehicle charges are paid separately, and gypsies are hired at the Sasan Gir reception centre.
• Only the registered visitors may ride in the vehicle.
• The permits are for eco-tourists, not professional tour operators, and bulk booking from a single point is not allowed.
• Online booking closes two hours before the slot. Changes are not allowed once an e-permit is generated, and fees and refund rules are on the booking site.
• Clothes that blend with the forest are recommended. Do not get out of the vehicle, do not carry plastic, and do not use spotlights or searchlights. Smoking and liquor are strictly prohibited.

Gujarat Tourism recommends winter, from November to March. The Forest Department's winter timetable starts on 16 October, when the jungle safari reopens, and the summer timetable runs from 1 March to 15 June. The jungle safari is closed from 16 June to 15 October, but Devalia Safari Park runs its timetable through the monsoon, and the Forest Department says Devalia can be seen in all three seasons: monsoon, winter and summer.

IMD does not publish a table for Gir itself. For Veraval, on the coast about 42 km away, the 1981–2010 normals give a January mean maximum of 29.2°C and a minimum of 15.1°C, May at 32.6°C and 25.8°C, and 311.5 mm of rain in July. Veraval is on the coast, so treat these figures as a guide only. Whenever you go, a sighting is never guaranteed; the Forest Department's own advice is not to be disappointed if you do not see a big cat.

By air: Keshod Airport is the closest, about 54 km away according to Gujarat Tourism; check which airlines currently fly there. For the Girnar sanctuary near Junagadh, the Forest Department gives Rajkot as the nearest airport, and about 100 km to the sanctuary.

By train: Junagadh and Veraval are the main railway hubs, and Sasan Gir has its own station on local lines. The Forest Department names Junagadh as the nearest station for Girnar.

By road: Gir is 71 km from Junagadh and 42 km from Veraval, and both have bus connections. Somnath is 82 km from Junagadh, and Ahmedabad is about 410 km from Somnath. For the wider state, see our Gujarat travel guide, and for the desert, the Rann of Kutch guide.