The Maruti Suzuki Gypsy was widely used in the jungles either by forest officials or for safaris. Now, the Jimny is ready to take over the mantle in this new avatar
Previously, the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy was modified to encounter the rough terrains of the jungle and to provide an open view of the raw nature of the jungle to tourists and wildlife photographers. It was not just the Gypsy, as some wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have modified versions of the Mahindra Bolero and Force Trax.
Recently, the NTCA(National Tiger Conservation Authority) and MoEF&CC (Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change) have asked all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks to remove old departmental vehicles and safari vehicles and opt for new vehicles that comply with the new emission standards.
Currently, NTCA is in talks with Maruti Suzuki to procure Jimny SUV for the task. The organisation has also asked all the states to provide their modification requirements to suit their needs. A Facebook user Harvijay Singh Bahia has posted images of the Maruti Jimny being modified into a Safari version. According to his post, he is testing the new Jimny Safari and has mentioned that the new version is more comfortable than the Safari version of the Force Trax.
However, not all is going well as he has pointed out that the windscreen is fixed and cannot be dropped down for photography. Maruti Suzuki has removed the roof and added a row of bench-type seats that are placed higher to give a better view for the occupants of the last row and this gives it a Safari vehicle look. Two roll bars are running across the vehicle to provide occupant head protection. We believe it is based on the Zeta variant as it features steel wheels.
The Maruti Jimny Safari version comes equipped with a bull bar that extends across the front wheel arches and extends to the rear wheel arches. There might also be other versions of the Jimny Safari which may have a foldable windscreen or a soft top version with side-facing bench seats.
Mechanically, we expect there will be no changes and it will continue to run on the same 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder naturally aspirated K15B petrol engine that produces 103bhp of power and 134Nm of torque while being mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. It will come with the famed Suzuki AllGrip Pro 4WD mechanism as standard.
