“Jungle safari in Uttarakhand” is a state-level question, and the state answers it at state level. The tourism department’s own adventure page says Uttarakhand offers several safari options, including at Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park, and a third official operator, Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary, runs its own safaris under the state forest department. This page is a hub: it lists the officially supported options, where each sits, the season each publishes and who takes the booking. It does not choose between Rajaji and Corbett — the site has two articles for that — and it quotes no package prices, because the official pages publish none of the bundled deals that circulate online.
Sources checked on 29 October 2026: Uttarakhand Tourism’s jungle safari page; its Rajaji page and Corbett page; the reserve’s own Rajaji booking portal; the Nainital district administration’s Corbett tiger reserve page; the official Corbett booking site; and Nandhaur’s jungle safari page. No tour-operator page is used as a source.
What the state tourism page lists
The one sentence to start from is the tourism department’s own: Uttarakhand “offers several safari options, including at Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park.” The word “including” matters — it signals more than two, and the third official option this page covers, Nandhaur, is a wildlife sanctuary rather than a national park. Three protected areas, three authorities, three booking paths, and no single season that covers all of them.
Rajaji Tiger Reserve
Rajaji’s reserve site runs the booking for its five jeep zones plus the Chaurasi Kutiya heritage site — a walk at Rishikesh, not a drive. Its jeep season is 15 November to 15 June, with the reserve closed 16 June to 14 November, and permits are sold on the official portal in the order date, zone, shift, visitor details, payment, printed permit.
The state’s tourism page for the park adds the geography: Himalayan foothills near Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun, with the Ganga and Song rivers running through the landscape, a national park area of 820.42 sq km, the best period as November to June and a monsoon closure. Readers who want the gate-by-gate detail should start with the gates and zones guide; the best-time guide covers the season window in depth, and fees, timings and permits the official numbers. City-specific angles live in jungle safari in Haridwar and jungle safari in Rishikesh.
Corbett National Park
Corbett is India’s first national park, established in 1936, with its gateway at Ramnagar in Nainital district, where the Field Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, is based. Uttarakhand Tourism’s page records it as established in 1936, India’s first national park, covering 1,318.54 sq km of main and buffer area across landscapes of Pauri Garhwal, Almora and Nainital. The Nainital district administration prints a narrower figure for the national park itself: 521 sq km, of which 312.86 sq km lie in Pauri Garhwal and 208.14 sq km in Nainital. Both figures are official and both are reported here rather than reconciled, because they measure different things — a main-plus-buffer landscape on one side, the national park’s own notified area on the other.
The zones named by tourism are Bijrani, Jhirna, Dhikala, Durgadevi, Dhela, Garjiya, Sonanadi and Pakhro. There is no single park-wide season, and readers should resist any page that gives one. The district page’s table gives Dhikala as 15 November to 15 June, Bijrani and Sonanadi as 15 October to 30 June, Jhirna as open round the year, and directs visitors to check the other zones on the booking site, corbettonline.uk.gov.in, where all Corbett permits are booked.
Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary
The third official option is the least advertised and worth knowing. Nandhaur is a wildlife sanctuary, not a national park, under the Haldwani Forest Division, spread across the Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts. Its own safari page says drives run in open jeeps or covered vehicles, depending on weather and availability, and lays out three season windows: 1 November to 15 February, 16 February to 15 April, and 16 April onwards, with morning and evening slots. That page is the booking reference; this article adds nothing to it.
Three booking paths, three authorities
The permits do not travel between the three reserves. Rajaji permits are issued on the reserve’s own portal in the sequence date, zone, shift, visitor details, payment, printed permit, and each permit is tied to one zone gate. Corbett permits come from the state’s eCorbett site, corbettonline.uk.gov.in, which the Nainital district page names as the place to check zones beyond the four it lists in its season table. Nandhaur runs its own arrangement through its official page, where morning and evening slots are offered in open jeeps or covered vehicles depending on weather and availability on the day. A booking made with one authority confers nothing at either of the others, and this article points each reader to the portal that actually issues the permit.
Two categories of claim are deliberately absent here. The first is package pricing: none of the official pages checked on 29 October 2026 publishes bundled rates, so none appears on this page, and readers should treat any bundled quote they find elsewhere as an operator’s own product rather than a government tariff. The second is animal encounters: no official source promises a sighting of any species, and this page makes no such promise either — a jeep drive in any of these reserves is a drive through habitat, with wildlife present but not scheduled.
How to choose without this page choosing
The honest short answer is that the three reserves serve different itineraries, and the choice belongs to the reader’s dates and base. Rajaji is the closest to Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun; Corbett needs Ramnagar and publishes the largest set of named zones and zone-specific seasons among the three; Nandhaur is a sanctuary rather than a national park, with its own season windows. For the direct comparison, read Rajaji versus Jim Corbett, and for the booking mechanics that differ between the two, separate permits and booking systems. This page takes no side between them, because the official sources describe options rather than rank them.
Where to read next
The two city-level companions to this hub are jungle safari in Haridwar, covering which Rajaji gate serves a Haridwar stay, and jungle safari in Rishikesh, covering what a Rishikesh stay can actually book. For Corbett’s official booking mechanics, the state’s own portal is corbettonline.uk.gov.in.
Jungle safari in Uttarakhand: questions answered
Which Uttarakhand reserves officially run jeep safaris?
The state tourism department’s jungle safari page, https://uttarakhandtourism.gov.in/adventures/jungle-safari, says Uttarakhand offers several safari options, including at Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park. Beyond those two, Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary runs its own official safaris, described on its site at https://nandhaurwildlife.uk.gov.in/attractions/jungle-safari. Those are the three options this page covers, each with its own zones, season and booking portal.
What are Corbett’s zones, and is there one season?
The zones named by Uttarakhand Tourism are Bijrani, Jhirna, Dhikala, Durgadevi, Dhela, Garjiya, Sonanadi and Pakhro. There is no single park-wide season. The Nainital district page, https://nainital.nic.in/corbett-tiger-reserve/, gives Dhikala as 15 November to 15 June, Bijrani and Sonanadi as 15 October to 30 June, Jhirna as open round the year, and says other zones should be checked on the booking site, https://corbettonline.uk.gov.in/, where Corbett permits are booked.
How large is Corbett, and where is it?
Two official figures are printed for different things, and both are reported here. Uttarakhand Tourism, https://uttarakhandtourism.gov.in/destination/corbett-national-park, says Corbett was established in 1936, was India’s first national park, covers 1,318.54 sq km of main and buffer area, and takes in landscapes of Pauri Garhwal, Almora and Nainital. The Nainital district page, https://nainital.nic.in/corbett-tiger-reserve/, gives the national park itself as 521 sq km, of which 312.86 sq km lie in Pauri Garhwal and 208.14 sq km in Nainital. The gateway town is Ramnagar in Nainital district, where the Field Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, is based.
What does Rajaji offer, and when does it run?
Rajaji’s reserve site, https://rajajitigerreserve.uk.gov.in/jungle-safari-booking.aspx, covers its five jeep zones and the Chaurasi Kutiya heritage site, a walk rather than a drive, with the jeep season running 15 November to 15 June and a closure from 16 June to 14 November. The state tourism page for the park, https://uttarakhandtourism.gov.in/explore/rajaji-national-park, describes Himalayan foothills near Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun, the Ganga and Song rivers running through the landscape, a national park area of 820.42 sq km, the best period as November to June and a monsoon closure.
What is Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary?
Nandhaur is a wildlife sanctuary under the Haldwani Forest Division, spread across the Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar districts — a sanctuary, not a national park. Its official safari page, https://nandhaurwildlife.uk.gov.in/attractions/jungle-safari, says safaris run in open jeeps or covered vehicles depending on weather and availability, lists three season windows — 1 November to 15 February, 16 February to 15 April, and 16 April onwards — and offers morning and evening slots.