Sariska National Park

 

The reserve is also the location of several sites of historical importance such as the 16th-century Kankwadi fort, originally built by Jai Singh II, located near the centre of the park . The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb briefly imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh in the struggle to become king . Pandupol in the hills in the centre of the reserve is believed to be one of the retreats of Pandava. The Hanuman temple in Pandupol is a pilgrimage site which causes problems for the wildlife, due to the heavy traffic. 

 The area also has buildings associated with the kings of Alwar such as the Sariska Palace, which was used as a royal hunting lodge of Maharaja . There were 16 tigers in the previous year. In January 2005, journalist Jay Mazoomdaar broke the news .  that there were no tigers left in Sariska. Soon the Rajasthan Forest Department and the Project Tiger Director declared an "emergency tiger census" in Sariska and the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's intelligence agency, conducted a probe .  

 After a two-month investigation they finally declared that Sariska did not have any tigers left . Poaching was blamed for the disappearance of tigers . In order to repopulate Sariska with tigers, three tigers were relocated to the reserve and authorities planned to relocate two more tigers by the end of the following year .  Recently, two tiger cubs and their mother were spotted in the reserve bringing the total number of tigers to seven with five adults. In July 2014, 2 more tiger cubs were spotted taking the total of tigers in the reserve to 11 with 9 adults .  Two cubs were further sighted in August 2014, making the total of tigers in Sariska to 13, with 7 females, 2 males and 4 cubs.

 This significant increase in tigers' population has given a wide smile to wildlife enthusiasts and therefore the footfall has been increased by a huge amount. Apart from the Bengal tiger, the reserve includes many species of wild life, such as the leopard, jungle cat, caracal, striped hyena, golden jackal, chital, sambhar, nilgai, chinkara, four-horned antelope, wild boar, hare, hanuman langur, rhesus monkeys .
 

Sasrika is also ethereal for bird watchers with some of the rarest feathered species like grey partridge, white-throated kingfisher, Indian peafowl, bush quail, sandgrouse, treepie, golden-backed woodpecker, crested serpent eagle and the Indian eagle owl .