Karanjia & Similipal

Odisha town in Mayurbhanj district, serving as the main gateway to Similipal National Park.

Karanjia is a small town in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, serving as the main gateway to Similipal National Park — one of India's largest tiger reserves, spread over 2,750 square kilometres of sal forest, grasslands, and hills.

Similipal is home to Royal Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, gaur, and a wide variety of birdlife, including the rare melanistic (near-black) Bengal tiger found almost nowhere else on earth. The park has two spectacular waterfalls: Joranda (150 metres) and Barehipani (399 metres, one of the tallest in India). Visitors can stay in government forest rest houses inside the park, which should be booked in advance through the Similipal Tiger Reserve office in Baripada.

Karanjia is about 230 km from Bhubaneswar and 120 km from Jamshedpur. The town has basic hotels and transport connections. A useful half-day excursion from Karanjia is the medieval temple complex at Khiching, 25 kilometres away, with its carved goddess and small site museum.

Guide

Getting There

Karanjia is about 230 kilometres from Bhubaneswar and 120 kilometres from Jamshedpur. The most common approach is by bus from Baripada (about 3 hours), which is itself connected to Bhubaneswar by train. A few direct buses run from Bhubaneswar, taking around 5–6 hours.

From Karanjia, shared jeeps and private vehicles run to the Pithabata (northern) entry gate of Similipal. For the southern Jashipur entry, most visitors come from Baripada rather than Karanjia. The nearest major train stations are Baripada (on the Howrah–Puri line via Kharagpur) and Jamshedpur (well served from Kolkata). Renting a car or jeep in Baripada gives the most flexibility for covering both zones of the park.

Guide

Things to Do

Karanjia is primarily a base for Similipal National Park, one of India's largest tiger reserves. The park itself is the main draw — tigers, elephants, waterfalls, and dense sal forest. Outside the park, the nearby temple complex at Khiching is worth a morning.