A trip to Bandhavgarh National Park!
Ran out of charge in the forest, saw a tiger and the mahakumbh crowd
What began as an ambitious plan to drive 860 kilometers from my home in New Delhi to Bandhavgarh National Park in a single day morphed into one of my longest and most memorable road trips. Covering this distance in my electric vehicle (EV) was made conceivable by three stellar expressways: Yamuna Expressway, Agra Lucknow Expressway, and Bundelkhand Expressway, spanning roughly 600 kilometers of the route, eclipsing my previous best of 750 kilometers in a day. But as any EV driver knows, it’s not just the roads that matter, it’s the chargers along the way.
Housekeeping
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The Itinerary
New Delhi to Bandhavgarh
Bandhavgarh to Katni
Katni to New Delhi
The Planning
What were the existing chargers on this route around major points with distances from New Delhi?
Past Orai, reliable chargers thinned out. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) like BPCL and IOCL were hit-or-miss, often offline or erratic.
I crafted three charging strategies:
New Delhi - Etawah - Banda - Bandhavgarh
New Delhi - Etawah - Orai - Chitrakoot - Bandhavgarh
New Delhi - Agra (overnight stay) - Orai - Chitrakoot - Bandhavgarh
Initially, I aimed to tackle the full 860 kilometers to Bandhavgarh in one grueling push, banking on the expressways’ smooth tarmac. Sanity prevailed, however, and my partner and I opted for a smarter approach: depart a day early, rest overnight in Agra after 200 kilometers, and cover the remaining 660 kilometers the next day.
Beyond getting some rest in Agra, there was one more thing that forced my hand to take this approach. The Sagar Grand charger in Etawah hosted both Jio-bp and Tata Power. I raised the issue of charger not working at Sagar Grand with Jio-bp’s customer support. It got ‘fixed’ temporarily and was online for a few days before going back offline. Tata Power too had a similar pattern. It was the only non OMC charger in this region utilising most of the car’s range. Thus, decided to skip Etawah completely, which forced me to take a stop and charge in Agra.
Similarly, I was tracking Statiq’s chargers in Agra and Orai. The chargers showed promise and reassured me the decision to go with them.
BPCL’s charger at Banda was promising. Atleast it wasn’t offline constantly, unlike other BPCL or IOCL chargers after Banda.
The reliable chargers were only in the first half and the second half only had two ‘reliable’ chargers - Jio-bp Type2 in Chitrakoot and BPCL’s charger at Banda to get me to Bandhavgarh.
If you are planning to travel somewhere and would like to know if a charger is working or not, then please reach out to me. Our team of volunteers can track it for you for a small fee. Limited slots only.
Let’s go!
New Delhi - Agra
In mid February, we left New Delhi around 4-5 pm for Agra. The Taj Mahal wasn’t on our radar (it’s closed Fridays and post-sunset, and we missed the full-moon viewing by a day), but food was.
Our ritual stop, ITC Mughal in Taj Ganj, offered Statiq’s charger and a good street food scene, preferable to the quieter ChargeZone at Courtyard by Marriott. We had dinner at Pinch of Spice, a local gem.
ITC Mughal became a standard stop for me because of the perception of low rates being offered by Statiq. This is how marketing works and I fell right in their trap. I picked a hotel (Hotel Samovar) right across the ITC Mughal charger and paid INR 1900 (US$ 22) for the room. The slow charger was 30% cheaper than the fast charger, and I didn’t need to fast charge because I was staying there overnight.
The car had reached 100% well in early hours of the night. I walked in at around 4:30 am to pick up the car.
Agra - Orai
While leaving from Agra we realised that we had forgotten our laptops and phone chargers in Delhi. We had little phone battery and had to last it for a good part of the day. We knew there wouldn’t be any shops to buy a charging cable for the majority part of the drive on the expressway.
We did a quick check of shops around Shyama Sarovar Portico Orai, our next charging stop and couldn’t find anything at a walking distance. We luckily had half charged MagSafe in the car and we relied on the wireless charger in MG for the rest of the time. The wireless charger heats up the phone to a level where it doesn’t charge it but is barely enough to sustain the charge. It is annoying. It has happened to me with my other phones and I hope there can be a solution around this.
We were on our way to Orai on the expressway. The roads were great and we were locked in at 79 kmph.
I’ve repeated this time and again, MG should stop saying that it has Internet Inside. The MapMyIndia app on the MG infotainment screen does not have updated roads and gets confused, especially when traveling on modern expressways.
This is when we were a few kilometres away before getting off the Bundelkhand Expressway to get to the Orai charger at Shyama Sarovar Portico. The MapMyIndia app suggests that we traverse back on the expressway till Takha, then get off it to get to Etawah and take the old road to Auraiya, Jalaun and Orai.
You wouldn’t know when to rely on these maps and when not to. My hunch is that MapMyIndia wanted a recurring fee to keep updating the maps and MG refused to pay, thus rendering the maps useless. After seeing useless maps, MG probably decided best to not have any headache and remove the option of maps altogether, solving it once and for all.
It is either that, or the Software Development Kit (SDK) by MapsMyIndia is due for a major upgrade and MG’s infotainment cluster couldn’t support it. I have seen ParkPlus app getting an update on 2022 ZS EV. ParkPlus app is completely useless and just seems like bloatware. The only reason MG must have put it on the infotainment is in lieu of some partnership where ParkPlus distributes FasTag for MG and in exchange they get to be on the infotainment system.
P.S.: MapMyIndia is now used in Mahindra’s latest twins BE6 and 9E. Will it see the same fate as MG down the road?
I couldn’t use Apple CarPlay or AndroidAuto because I had forgotten my damn cable at home and the car doesn’t come with wireless options. Even if it did, I wouldn’t have used it because it would consume precious phone battery. I argue why having great software in cars is better for consumers in this June 2024 article.
We had purchased some buns and some sandwich spread for our early morning hunger pangs. After a very unhealthy breakfast of tandoori mayo sandwich spread with Lays chips in a bun, we reached Shyama Sarovar Portico Orai for a real breakfast by 9 am.
The property at Orai was really beautiful and breathtaking. The sky was clear and the weather was just perfect, allowing us to cherish the last bit of winter. The property looked majestic and here are some photos from there.
But first, a photo of the charging stop.
Excuse my parking. The bollards at the property are just weirdly placed.
We paid INR 600 x 2 for an all you can eat breakfast buffet at the property. The breakfast spread was decent and filling.
Statiq shows real time data about the charging session. My detailed feedback on this can be found in the article coming up later this week. Subscribe, if you haven’t already.
While charging, the power went out and an alternate power supply kicked in. Naturally, the charging stopped too. Neither Statiq nor MG gave me a notification that the charging has stopped. It was only due to my obsessive nature of checking the SoC, I realised that it had stopped at around 80-85%. I paused my meal midway, went back to the charger, initiated it and came back to finish my breakfast.
I had to wait probably an extra ten, fifteen minutes at the charging stop. It was critical to charge as much as we could, because the only reliable option were at BPCL’s Banda, another 100 kilometres away, or at Jio-bp’s Type2 charger at Chitrakoot, 175 kilometres away. If both of them weren’t working, then we would have barely been able to reach Maharaja Kothi Resort at Tala, Bandhavgarh, 404 kilometers away and 450 meters higher in elevation, virtually an impossible task with a degraded battery pack. My previous Mumbai Pune runs have taught me that around 10% of the pack is consumed to ascend 500m in elevation. Keeping that into account, it was not going to be a straightforward task.
Orai - Banda
We marched on to Banda, hoping that a small top up of around 20% should be enough to get us to Tala, Bandhavgarh. The best thing about BPCL’s charger at Banda was that it was right on the highway. That is the only good thing about this charger. The charger is at a BPCL petrol pump and had a very long queue. The number plates reflected that the cars were from Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states. It could all mean only one thing, they were either all headed to the Kumbh Mela or returning from there.
It was really a sight to see. There are very few amenities on this expressway and the queue to get CNG / petrol / diesel extended beyond 2 km. People had stepped out of their cars and meals were being distributed by some people, trashing the whole place. We didn’t have to deal with the queue and proceeded right upto the charger. We saw the single gun 30kW Servotech charger and a Tata Tigor EV waiting. It wasn’t a great sign. The app showed that the charger was available.
I pulled up next to the charger. The Tata guy had driven continuously from Gujarat to the Kumbh Mela. He was now heading back and wanted to reach as quickly as possible. I asked him why was he not charging. He mentioned that he can only charge for less than 5 seconds before the session gets terminated. Weird. He was using BPCL’s eDrive app. I asked him if he had tried using Statiq’s app. He wasn’t aware of the app. I asked him if I can try charging my car and see if it works for me. He said you can try, but it won’t. He knew something that I didn’t. I tried, twice. I couldn’t charge. The session ended in under ten seconds.
Curiously, I asked him, why this was the case. Upgrade to paid subscription to read the follow up article about this road trip.
We just wanted to a very small charge, but unfortunately, couldn’t. We did not wanted to wait at the fuel pump for hours. The washrooms were overflowing and it was horrible to stand because of the pungent urine smell. I had to bet on doing a slow charge for a bit in Chitrakoot at yet another petrol pump - Jio-bp. I thought it wasn’t going to be too bad.
Banda - Chitrakoot
Before leaving from Banda, I checked the Jio-bp app for Chitrakoot’s Type2 AC charger. The charger was online and I booked my slot to charge the car. I only needed a small top up and did not want to wait in line to charge. I also didn’t want to take a chance with the BPCL and IOCL chargers in Satna and beyond. It was smooth to book the slot using Jio-bp’s app.
We drove on the expressway for another 70 odd kilometers. The good stretch of roads was now over and we had to be prepared for whatever comes next, for the next 230 kilometers. We made our way to Chitrakoot Dham in Uttar Pradesh. Chitrakoot is a highly significant religious town for Hindu devotees. It is also only 100 kilometers from Prayagraj, the massive Kumbh site for Hindu devotees, which saw 660 Million visitors in just over a month. This explained why there were many tourists in the town, way more than the town can handle.
We made it to the tiny Jio-bp petrol pump’s Type2 AC charger. The car started charging. The car was only charging at 3kW instead of 7.2kW or 6.6kW. It was half the speed. I enquired with the folks at the fuel pump and they didn’t know much about the speed. They only knew that cars would park here for a long time. I tried the usual debugging - restarted the charger, disconnected it and connected it again. No change.
I called up the Jio-bp call center, hoping to get some resolution and answers. They asked me to reconnect the charger. It was pointless and I hanged up. I decided to accept the fate, kept the AC on - it was boiling hot in the afternoon and wait it out.
To know why this was the case, don’t forget to read the follow up article on this road trip releasing this week.
I stepped out to see if there was something to eat nearby. I walked for a bit and came back disappointed. There was just a traffic jam on the main road. Not a pretty scene.
My original one hour stop became a two hour stop. I still had over 200 kilometers to cover and it would take a minimum of five hours, with the last stretch literally through a jungle / national park. I waited till the car’s range was back at 200 kilometers with AC on. That was around 58%, giving me just enough range to get to Maharaja Kothi Resort at Tala, Bandhavgarh.
While we were charging, another Gujarat Tiago EV came to charge at the Jio-bp charger. They, unfortunately, had to wait while we charged our car. They were yet another family of four headed to Kumbh Mela in their Tiago EV. Their plan was to roam around in Chitrakoot while their car slowly charged at the petrol pump. For context, Gujarat is around 1200 kilometers away from Varanasi and the Tiago’s range is just under 200 kilometers.
Chitrakoot - Bandhavgarh
Getting out of Chitrakoot was a pain in the ass. The main roads were barricaded by the cops and vehicles were not allowed to pass through. The only way was to go through villages and farms next to the town. There were many others like me trying to get to the other side of the town. Naturally, the village road couldn’t take it all and there was traffic on these non existing roads. That’s where we spent one hour covering 10 km to cross the tiny town of Chitrakoot. It was hell.
With that out of the way, I hoped that the situation would be better down the road. Eighty five kms later, Satna was yet another hell hole. The main highway passed through the town and the roads were very narrow. It felt like a different universe altogether for a city driver like me.
We crossed Satna and the sun was about to set. We eventually bought the cables to charge our phones in Barhi, the last major town before Bandhavgarh. It was still 40 kilometers to go to the resort and the car’s range was only 36 kilometers in Eco mode. I changed from my default Regen 3 to Regen 1 to ensure maximum coasting. There was a narrow winding road through the Pantapatha Wildlife Sanctuary, with no other lights except that of infrequent vehicles on the road. There was no other human around for long stretches. All I could do was to drive slow and let car’s momentum take me as far as it could.
Headlights pierced the silence, wildlife loomed nearby, and the delta (the difference between how much the car can travel and the distance needed to travel) teetered with elevation, down to negative 1-1.5 kilometers on declines, up to negative 5 kilometers on inclines.
I have gone to low state of charge earlier - to 1% charge with 2 kilometers range remaining, but this time it was very very scary. Why? Imagine running out of charge in the middle of the forest with no electrical source nearby, no life, no phone signal and nothing except wildlife around. We were next to a forest known to inhabit tigers and the big cats are active at night. Those fears kept going through our minds. We soldiered on.
The real delta was around negative 2.5 kilometers when we were 10 kilometers away. I was mentally prepared to push the car for the 2.5 kilometers if it shut down at zero. Various scenarios about towing the car also crossed my mind. I could’ve asked the resort to send me a car and a rope to tow the car and put it on charge in the resort. It was also past 10pm, further shrinking down our support options.
I have to credit my partner on staying calm throughout this journey and backing me to make it to the resort. I always knew that MG has a bottom buffer which can take you atleast 20 kilometers, but I had never dared to test it out earlier. This time, I did. It was showing 0% with 3 kilometers to go. I reached the resort with no difficulties whatsoever. In hindsight, I was glad we didn’t do the entire stretch from New Delhi to Bandhavgarh in one go.
Bandhavgarh
Maharaja Kothi resort was kind enough to provide me with free slow charging. I put the car to charge using the 30 meter extension cable. We had our dinner and headed to bed. We had booked our safari for the next morning at 6:30 am. It was my first safari and I absolutely loved the experience. I loved listening to the cacophony of animals and trying to decode what each animal means. It allowed me to take a pause, not focus on anything digital but just be present in the forest. If you are like me and you liked hearing these sounds, you should listen to Wild Frequencies, a mini series in the Everything Environment podcast by MongaBay India. Recently they put out a series of episodes focused on animal calls and it is so much fun to hear.
Here are some of the photos from the safari.
While 80% of the 1536 sq kilometer forest is closed to the regular public, it is amazing to see how the rules of survival change once you are in the forest. You have to rely on your own instincts with little to no help of any modern technology. The deers run carefree in the forest, staying alert only when they sense they are being hunted down. It is a very different life, a life probably humans can never get used to. I loved my time in the forest and will definitely visit more national parks!
We came back at around 12:30 pm after sighting one tiger minutes before our safari was about to end. It was unreal to see the big cat so up close. Satisfied, we came back to our resort and the car was still charging, which is also a lovely sight to see. We had our delicious late brunch and left for Katni after a brief rest.
Bandhavgarh to Katni
Bandhavgarh to Katni is around 100 kilometers, or a 2 hour drive. The car was at 60%, more than enough to cover this distance comfortably in AC. The roads were single lane for the two way traffic in the forest. After that, it became single lane for each way traffic, providing some relief. We reached the destination after driving for 108 km with 28% SoC.
We were staying in Katni for two nights, allowing me ample time to slow charge the car to 100%. It took around 16 hours of overnight charging.
Katni - Delhi
I did not want to do the same mistakes of driving through small crowded towns or through non existent roads next to farms and villages. I spoke with a few locals and they advised an alternate route for me, one that I had ignored on my way down to Bandhavgarh.
They suggested to take the route from Katni - Chhatarpur - Panna to the Bundelkhand Expressway from Orai instead of going via Satna and Chitrakoot. We took their suggestion, hoping that we wouldn’t have to go through anything worse than what we’ve already been through. Luckily, the Panna route was much better.
I had ignored this route earlier because I wanted to cover maximum distance on the expressway so that I could travel faster and save some time. The post expressway leg of the forward journey took the most amount of time with annoying roads.
We left from Katni at around 5 AM with a full charge and reached Orai just around lunch time with 6%, which was a luxury given how we had ran out of charge a few nights ago. We covered 350 kilometers on this leg in a single charge. The worse stretch was over. Driving through the charging desert was over. Now it was only driving through expressways to get back home.
The kitchen in Sarovar Portico Orai had closed and they refused to serve us anything but sandwiches. We weren’t going to have sandwiches after 7 hours of driving. We requested the head chef to give us anything they had prepared and we were lucky to get manchurian and some starters.
The car charged upto 90% by the time we had finished our lunch in little over an hour. New Delhi was around 475 kilometers from Shyama Sarovar Portico, around 20% more than the maximum distance the car can travel in a single charge. It was impossible to do the whole distance in a single charge. So, we left after finishing lunch and didn’t wait for it to charge to 100%.
I didn’t have to worry much because there would be chargers off the expressways and I had more than enough charge to get to Agra. If one brand charger was not working, or giving maximum charging speeds, I could always switch to another one. We had flexible plans on our overnight stay. We wanted to reach Agra and then decide if we wanted to rest for a few hours before heading to New Delhi.
We reached there at 20% SoC. In Agra, I charged yet again at ITC Mughal, this time on the fast charger. I knew we need around 50% charge from ITC Mughal to get to our home, at 79 kmph. We plugged the car in, walked across the street, had a burger at Burger King. Walked back and the car was already above 75%, which was sufficient to get home safely.
It was a blast driving through these modern expressways. It can do better with more rest stops, definitely needs a lot more charging stops on the highways, to make these types of journeys stress free.
We got home at 22% SoC, covering 841 kms in a single day, marking the longest stretch of driving done in a day for the car. It was a hectic and a crazy ride. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Summary
The return trip stats are as follows :
Total distance - 1849 km (~1150 miles)
Total cost of charging - INR 3027 (~US$35.3)
Total kWh consumed - 249 kWh
This piece can be re-published (CC BY-NC-SA) with a line mentioning ‘This was originally published on ExpWithEVs.in’ and a link back to this page. In case of re-publishing, please alert priyans@expwithevs.in
Text, data and editing - Priyans Murarka
Maps - Siddharth Agarwal