Dhikala, the zone at the heart of Jim Corbett National Park, looking across the grassland to the Ramganga, November 2009. Photo © Ashok.delhi17, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Where Corbett is and how big it is, the eight zones and their gates, which months each one is open, the jeep, canter, elephant and night-stay options, the rules inside the reserve, how to get there from Delhi, Haldwani and Nainital, and the places to see around Ramnagar and Kaladhungi.
The short answer: Jim Corbett National Park is in Uttarakhand, in the Nainital, Pauri and Almora districts, and its main gates are at Ramnagar, 54 km from Haldwani and 235 km from Delhi. Founded in 1936 as India’s first national park, it covers 520.82 sq km, and the Corbett Tiger Reserve around it 1,288 sq km. It had 260 tigers in the 2022 count, more than any other reserve in India. Visitors see it on a jeep safari through one of eight tourism zones, six of them reached from Ramnagar, or on the shared canter and the forest rest houses of Dhikala, the zone in the heart of the park. Three zones, Jhirna, Dhela and Garjiya, are open all year; Bijrani opens on 15 October and Dhikala and Durga Devi on 15 November, and all close for the monsoon by the end of June. Inside the reserve phones are not allowed, plastic is banned and there is no driving after dark. Outside it, Ramnagar and the resort strip at Dhikuli are the usual bases, with Garjiya Devi temple, Corbett Falls and Jim Corbett’s old house at Kaladhungi within half an hour.
By Nandini Upreti, Contributor, Almora. About the author ↓
Most of this page holds good every year. The points below change from season to season, so they sit here with the day we checked them.
The 2026-27 season at Corbett
Jim Corbett National Park lies along the foot of the Kumaon hills in Uttarakhand, where the Ramganga river comes down out of the mountains, and it spreads across parts of Nainital, Pauri and Almora districts. The town at its door is Ramnagar, in Nainital district, 54 km west of Haldwani. The park was founded in 1936 as Hailey National Park, the first in India, was renamed Ramganga National Park in the 1950s and took the name Corbett in 1956, after Jim Corbett, the hunter turned naturalist who grew up at Nainital and Kaladhungi. Project Tiger began here on 1 April 1973.
Two areas get mixed up. The national park itself is 520.82 sq km, enlarged from 323.75 sq km in 1966. The Corbett Tiger Reserve, which includes the park, the Sonanadi sanctuary and a ring of buffer forest, is 1,288.31 sq km, of which 821.99 sq km is core and 466.32 sq km buffer. Inside it are sal forest on the ridges, the open grasslands called chaurs along the river, and the Ramganga reservoir on its southern edge. Corbett had 260 tigers in the 2022 national count, the most of any reserve, and 1,226 elephants in the 2020 elephant count; a fresh elephant count was carried out in May 2026. It is also known for its birds, with winter migrants on the river and the reservoir.
About 3.6 lakh people visited Corbett in 2024, and the reserve counted 4,00,946 visitors in the year to March 2026, down from 4,59,395 the year before, which the park put down to higher fees and the difficulty of getting Dhikala.
Visitors do not wander into Corbett; they enter one tourism zone at a time, on a permit for that zone, through that zone’s gate. The reserve lists eight zones. Six are reached from Ramnagar and two from Kotdwar on the Garhwal side, which is a different trip from Kumaon. The zone and the gate do not always share a name, which sends drivers to the wrong barrier.
| Zone | Entry gate | Season | Reached from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jhirna | Dhela | All year | Ramnagar |
| Dhela | Dhela | All year | Ramnagar |
| Garjiya | Garjiya | All year | Ramnagar |
| Bijrani | Amdanda | 15 October to 30 June | Ramnagar |
| Dhikala | Dhangari | 15 November to 15 June, canter or night stay only | Ramnagar |
| Durga Devi | Durga Devi | 15 November to 15 June | Ramnagar |
| Sonanadi | Vatanvasa | 15 November to 15 June | Kotdwar |
| Pakhro | Pakhro | 15 November to 15 June | Kotdwar |
From the Ramnagar bus stand, Dhangari gate for Dhikala is 18 km up the Ranikhet road, about half an hour, and the Durga Devi gate 27.5 km, nearer an hour, by Google Maps. Our guide to booking a Corbett safari has the permits, fees and booking windows for each zone.
Outside the reserve’s fence, the Ramnagar Forest Division runs three more safari areas of its own: Sitabani, with its temple to Sita, Kota, and Corbett Heritage near Kaladhungi. They are booked separately and take more jeeps, 120 a shift at Sitabani against 30 in most reserve zones, and some visitors have moved to them, and to the newer Phato area, as the reserve’s own zones got harder to book.
Corbett has one long season and one closure. The big zones open in autumn, Bijrani on 15 October and Dhikala, Durga Devi, Sonanadi and Pakhro on 15 November, and close for the monsoon, Bijrani on 30 June and the rest on 15 June. Jhirna, Dhela and Garjiya are listed as open all year, though monsoon rain can still stop drives. So from mid-November to mid-June every zone is open, and in July, August and September only the three year-round zones are.
The reserve’s own pages do not always agree on these dates: one page gives Durga Devi and Pakhro a 15 October start and another 15 November, and one gives Garjiya a 15 October to 30 June season while the main table says all year. We use the main table above, and suggest you check the zone you want on the booking page itself before you plan around it. The seasons in short: winter, from November to February, is cool and green with foggy mornings, which our guide to Jim Corbett in winter covers in detail; March to June is hot; and the monsoon closes most of the park.
The jeep safari is how most people see Corbett. An open Gypsy takes up to six people with a driver and a guide, for a drive of about four hours, in a morning shift and an afternoon shift. Private cars are not allowed inside, so you book a permit for a zone and a registered safari jeep from Ramnagar. Each zone takes a fixed number of jeeps a shift, 30 at Jhirna and Bijrani, which is why the popular slots sell out.
The canter is the only way into Dhikala on a day trip. It is a shared, sixteen-seat open bus that boards at the reserve’s office in Ramnagar or at Dhangari gate, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and you buy seats on it one by one.
A night inside is the other way into Dhikala, and the most memorable way to see Corbett. The reserve runs forest rest houses at Dhikala, Gairal, Sarpduli and Sultan in the Dhikala zone, at Bijrani and Malani in Bijrani, at Jhirna, and at Halduparao, Rathuwadhab, Mudiyapani and Morghatti in Sonanadi. Dhikala itself has about 30 rooms and 12 dormitory beds, and a night stay includes the safaris in that zone. Night stays are booked 45 days ahead for Indian visitors and up to 90 days for foreigners, and Dhikala goes within days. Inside there is no alcohol, no non-vegetarian food and no firecrackers, and some rest houses have no canteen, so you carry your own food.
Elephant rides came back in December 2025 after six or seven years, at Dhikala and Bijrani, at Rs 1,000 for Indian visitors and Rs 3,000 for foreigners, up to five on an elephant. Whether they will run this winter had not been announced when we checked.
All of these are booked only through the reserve’s own booking site, corbettgov.org, which opens at 5:25 am and closes same-day bookings at 6:30 am for the morning safari and 4 pm for the afternoon one. The group leader’s ID has to be uploaded, front and back, and is checked at the gate. Many other sites sell Corbett safaris, and the reserve warns that tickets booked through third parties can be cancelled without refund. Fees, booking windows and the gate rules are all in our Corbett safari booking guide.
Corbett’s rules are stricter than most parks’, and they are enforced at the gate. Phones may not be used in any tourism zone, by visitors, drivers or guides; you leave them at the gate, and cameras are allowed. The reserve is a zero-plastic zone, with a Rs 500 spot fine for littering or spitting, and carrying alcohol or weapons is an offence.
The Supreme Court’s judgment of 17 November 2025 added more. It banned tiger safaris in the core, night tourism in the reserve and drones in the buffer and the fringe, closed roads through the core from dusk to dawn except for emergency vehicles, ordered the reserve and its eco-sensitive zone to be declared a silence zone, allowed new eco-resorts only in the buffer and never in elephant corridors, and asked for safari vehicles to move to solar, hybrid or electric power. Around the park, open-air DJs are not allowed after 10 pm within 500 m of the reserve. The reserve has also been taking action against resorts that play loud music at night or point strong lights at the forest.
Ramnagar is where every Corbett trip on the Kumaon side starts. We measured these on Google Maps on 30 October 2026, to the Ramnagar bus stand, with usual traffic.
| From | Distance | Drive | Way |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi (India Gate) | 235 km | 4 h 51 min | NH 9 to Moradabad, then north by Kashipur |
| Haldwani bus stand | 54 km | 1 h 11 min | West along the foothills by Kaladhungi |
| Kathgodam station | 58.7 km | 1 h 19 min | Through Haldwani, then by Kaladhungi |
| Nainital (Tallital) | 67.2 km | 1 h 55 min | Down the Kaladhungi road |
| Pantnagar airport | 78.7 km | 1 h 40 min | By Haldwani or Kashipur |
By train, Ramnagar has its own station, and two daily trains from Delhi carry coaches that are detached at Moradabad and taken on to it: the Corbett Park Link, which leaves Delhi at 22:05 with the Ranikhet Express and reaches Ramnagar at 04:15, in time for a morning safari, and the Sampark Kranti coaches, which leave Delhi at 16:00 and reach Ramnagar around 21:00. Going back, the coaches leave Ramnagar at 09:50 and 22:25. The other choice is a train to Kathgodam or Haldwani, about an hour from Ramnagar by road; our Delhi to Kathgodam train guide has those trains. By air, Pantnagar is the nearest airport, with flights from Delhi. By road, the drive from Delhi is straightforward on NH 9, and from Haldwani a taxi to Ramnagar takes just over an hour; our Haldwani cab guide lists operators.
Ramnagar is the practical base: the reserve’s office, the canter, the safari jeeps and most gates are here, and it has hotels at every price. Dhikuli, the strip along the Ranikhet road between Ramnagar and Dhangari gate, is where most of the resorts are; many of the more than 350 resorts in the area stand along it. Kaladhungi, 30 km east on the Haldwani road, is quieter, close to Corbett Falls, the museum and the Corbett Heritage safari area, and halfway to Haldwani. Haldwani, an hour away, has far more hotels and is where the trains and buses arrive; for an early safari you leave around 4:30 am, which works for one day but gets tiring for several. Our guide to staying in Haldwani for a Corbett trip has the hotels and the timings.
Garjiya Devi temple stands on a rock in the middle of the Kosi river, 14.1 km north of Ramnagar on the Ranikhet road, about half an hour by car. The river has been eating at its base, and the temple was closed from March to June 2026 for protection work and again after floods in September; a second phase of the work was due this autumn, so ask in Ramnagar whether it is open before you go.
Corbett Falls is a waterfall in the forest off the Ramnagar to Kaladhungi road, 27.7 km from Ramnagar, about 40 minutes, and an easy stop on the way between Haldwani and Ramnagar.
The Jim Corbett Museum at Kaladhungi is Corbett’s old winter home, now kept by the reserve as a museum of his life. It is open from 7 am to 6 pm every day except Holi, and it is 24.9 km from the Haldwani bus stand, about 35 minutes, on the way to Ramnagar.
The Kosi barrage at Ramnagar is a good place for waterbirds in winter, and the Sitabani temple, inside the forest of the same name, is a quieter half-day. Corbett also pairs easily with the hills: Nainital is under two hours from Ramnagar, with Kainchi Dham beyond it, and our guide to the road to Kainchi Dham covers that side.
One safari is enough to see what Corbett is like, but not to see much of it, and the animals keep their own hours. Two days and three safaris in different zones is a better minimum, and a night inside, at Dhikala or Bijrani, is worth more than any number of day drives.
Book the zones first, as soon as the window for your date opens, and the hotel second.
“Book a jeep safari to Dhikala.” There is no such permit. Dhikala is open only to the canter and to guests at its rest houses.
“Corbett is open all year.” Only partly. Jhirna, Dhela and Garjiya are listed as open all year; the other five close for the monsoon, and rain stops drives on some days in the year-round zones too.
“You can still stay overnight at Dhikala.” For this season, yes, in the sense that the reserve is selling rest-house nights from 15 November 2026; but the Supreme Court banned night tourism in the reserve in November 2025, so check the booking page close to your date in case that changes.
“Elephant safaris have stopped.” They stopped for several years and came back in December 2025 at Dhikala and Bijrani. This season’s position had not been announced when we checked.
“Ramnagar is 88 km from Haldwani.” That figure is for the longer way through Lalkuan and Kashipur. By the Kaladhungi road Google Maps gives 54 km and just over an hour.
In Uttarakhand, along the foothills of Kumaon, spread across Nainital, Pauri and Almora districts. Its main gates are at Ramnagar in Nainital district, 54 km from Haldwani, 67 km from Nainital and 235 km from Delhi by road.
Partly. The Jhirna, Dhela and Garjiya zones are listed as open all year. Bijrani is open from 15 October to 30 June, and Dhikala, Durga Devi, Sonanadi and Pakhro from 15 November to 15 June, so from July to September only the three year-round zones run, and monsoon rain can stop drives even there.
Two days is a good minimum: three jeep safaris in different zones, or two safaris and the Dhikala canter. Add a night in a forest rest house at Dhikala or Bijrani if you can get one; they open for booking 45 days ahead and sell out within days.
Yes. Ramnagar is 54 km, just over an hour, from Haldwani and 67 km, about two hours, from Nainital by the Kaladhungi road. For a morning safari leave Haldwani by about 4:30 am; from Nainital it is easier to spend the night before in Ramnagar or Haldwani.
Visit Garjiya Devi temple on its rock in the Kosi, 14 km from Ramnagar; Corbett Falls, 28 km away off the Kaladhungi road; and Jim Corbett’s old winter home at Kaladhungi, now a museum open from 7 am to 6 pm except on Holi. In winter the Kosi barrage at Ramnagar is good for waterbirds. Check that the Garjiya temple is open first, as it was closed for repair work in 2026.