Bandipur National Park & Tiger Reserve Safari

It was quite some time that we hadn't been out on an outing and I was planning for one. And when one of my friends informed me about his plans to visit Bengaluru from Mumbai and popped a question about an outing together, the timing couldn't have been any better. He suggested Bandipur national park safari, and since I had not visited it before, we all decided on it.

I quickly started checking for different hotels/resorts for the stay. There were couple of good luxurious options but based on some good online reviews about National Tiger Reserve cottages, I decided to book it instead. I have penned down the details about cottage booking procedure and details here.

Bandipur tiger reserve cottage area is a huge campus beautifully located inside the national park. That’s why we witnessed many deer casually walking around, resting right next to our stay. Peacocks sang, or disturbed, in the wee hours.

Bandipur being one of the first nine tiger reserves in the country, extends over an area of about 82 sq.kms covering forest area of 3 states Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala. We booked for an afternoon safari and that too in a gypsy/jeep, which was a right fit for 5 of us. The wildlife safari starts from the new campus and is a 2 hours affair where they take us through the designated area of the forest on the set trails. The drivers and the official accompanying are, of course, well trained and explain the things quite nicely.

It actually took us few minutes to realize that we are in an open gypsy in the forest, yes in a tiger reserve, and there is of course a chance to meet a tiger in the open. This very thought when we all discussed in open brought the fear factor.

We were fortunate enough to spot the following animals:

• 5-6 Elephants
• Deer, in abundance
• Barking deer, a very shy animal
• Sambar deer, apparently the largest deer in India
• Peacocks

However, NO tigers ☹. The driver informed that in his morning safari they were fortunate enough to spot 2 tigers. And this information certainly didn’t help us feel any better, in fact made us sadder.

May be, next time.

The safari was of course an enjoyable experience. The rain added a nice touch to the already attractive bumpy ride. My son enjoyed it more.

Bandipur National Park and tiger reserve turned out to be a good destination, surely something to visit again in future.

On our way back, visited the Gaganchukki and Barachukki water falls too.