Hyundai Great India Drive - Exclusive Stories

India is undoubtedly one of the best countries in the world for those who love travelling. It offers a unique blend of varied flavours, cultures, climates, and topography. Each outing in India is likely to be an enriching experience. Now, as auto enthusiasts, we naturally love embarking on road trips to different corners of our beautiful country, exploring new places and enjoying new experiences. And the annual Hyundai Great India Drive (GID) – every year we drive to one of the hidden gems of our country (in a Hyundai, of course) to discover something new about our nation’s treasures – has been making our road trips even more joyful and fulfilling.

Now, we still have some time before this year’s GID kicks off, so in anticipation of our upcoming adventure, we’ve decided to reminisce about last year’s journey – we drove the Hyundai Exter to Bandhavgarh National Park, one of the country’s densest tiger reserves, in Madhya Pradesh. Our journey began from Jabalpur and spanned over 250km, with numerous detours to popular tourist spots, including the famous Dhuandhar Falls. Finally, we reached our destination in our quest to catch a glimpse of the national animal and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ‘Project Tiger’ campaign. 

The Trusty Steed

For the journey, we chose the Hyundai Exter – the company’s micro-SUV – which seriously punches above its weight in all aspects. While its premium, feature-loaded, and spacious cabin made the journey enjoyable and comfortable, its peppy engine, smooth automated manual transmission, and impeccable road-holding manners ensured an enjoyable driving experience regardless of the terrain.

Throughout the trip, we encountered arrow-straight highways, broken roads, and muddy, slushy jungle trails, but the Exter simply glided over everything without a hitch. What’s more, its high ground clearance allowed us to navigate bad patches of road without any hesitation. In simple words, the Exter exhibited stellar ride quality everywhere, so much so that even after six hours of continuous driving, we hardly experienced any fatigue.

The Exter’s high-speed stability is another standout feature. It feels rock-solid at triple-digit speeds and inspires great confidence – a testament to its solid underpinnings. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that the Exter comes with six airbags as standard across trims. This means that irrespective of the variant, you and your family will never have to compromise in terms of safety.  

Paws for a Cause

Established in 1968, the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve joined the Project Tiger campaign in 1993. As of today, it is one of the five national parks in Madhya Pradesh and also one of the hottest destinations for big cat lovers from across the world. Spread across 1,536 sq. km, with 716 sq. km designated as the core zone and the rest as the buffer zone, the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve has three core zones – Tala, Magadhi, and Khitaul. For this occasion, we chose the Tala zone, said to have the densest foliage of the three. Reportedly, there are around 18 tigers in the Tala zone alone, while the entire national park has around 160 to 180 tigers. Now, given that only 20% of the park is accessible to visitors, sightings can be challenging at times. Not for us though! We were lucky enough to spot one – a truly majestic sight, one that leaves an indelible mark on your mind for life. 

Mission Achieved

Our journey to one of the country’s densest tiger reserves was indeed an unforgettable adventure. Apart from all the thrill and excitement, this edition of the GID also gave us an opportunity to learn the historical significance of the national park and witness the remarkable success of Project Tiger, which has been instrumental in saving the Royal Bengal Tiger from extinction. The icing on the cake was to experience all this while indulging in what we love the most – a long, enjoyable road trip.

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The entire national park is home to around 160 to 180 tigers