If you are planning an outing in the wilderness this winter and are yet to make the bookings, strike out Dalma from your list.

The Pinderbera forest guest house atop Dalma hills and the Makulakocha cottages on the foothills, both sought-after destinations at the popular wildlife sanctuary, are already jam-packed till January. Officials are no longer entertaining requests for bookings.

However, tourists are welcome to book rooms from February onwards. Dalma range officer R.P. Singh said that this being the peak tourism season, they were expecting visitors in good numbers. "Dalma is a favourite getaway in this part of the region. That our facilities are booked till January just proves that fact," he added.

According to the booking in-charge at the forest range office, though there was water scarcity at Pinderbera, the Mango forest range office has made arrangements of tankers.

"Tourists, who flock to the Dalma hills in winter, will face no problem," he added.

The water level at the deep boring has gone down at Pinderbera, around 40km from Jamshedpur. A tanker ferries 2,000 litres of water from Makulakocha, some 25km from the steel city, to Pinderbera every alternate day to meet the water crisis.

There is no such problem at Makulakocha cottages though.

Earlier this year, the forest department had roped in a Calcutta-based travel planner, Jaydeep Das, to handle bookings. However, Das is yet start the same due to some logistics issue. Hence, the forest range office is still handling the bookings.

Tourists from Calcutta, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Ghatshila and Jamshedpur are making a beeline for the facilities. "Most of the tourists are from Calcutta. Today (Wednesday), a family from Calcutta checked out from Pinderbera before a group from the same city arrived," the booking in-charge said.

The low tariff are an added attraction.

The existing rate for the four double-bed cottages in Makulakocha is Rs 1,000 plus Rs 100 for maintenance per night.

The three-room Pinderbera guesthouse carries a price tag of Rs 800 per night. But only two rooms are made available to the tourists while one is reserved for forest officials.

Tourists are required to carry their own stock of ration for spending time at Pinderbera, but it is not the same for Makulakocha. Here, tourists are served both vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies. They also enjoy various kinds of snacks at a tastefully decorated cafeteria.