Thursday, January 1, 2009

South India tour: Day 5 - Bandipur Tiger Reserve (28 December 2008)


After checking out of Misty Woods, and this time reaching the highway to Mysore (en route to Ooty) correctly, we were on the main highway in three hours flat. Taking the outer ring road of Mysore and bypassing the foothills of Chamundi Hills, we were on our way to Ooty. 

I stopped briefly at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve - a vast expanse of protected forest land in South Karnataka and home to wild cats such as tigers, leopards, panthers and also deer, wild dogs and an array of snakes like Cobra and Python. The sightings on that day I was there were very poor as I was told by a senior forest ranger with whom  I had a nice, long chat. But I  decided to take a chance. Jeep tours were discontinued but buses were there and fortunately I happened to be 
 there a good 1/2 hour before the next bus ride. 

No, I did not spot any wild cat. But no regrets! The safari was good (45 mins), it was my first ever safari, so in that way, it was quite memorable. I only spotted langoors, deer and wild boars. 

We continued on our way to Ooty, past by the Bandipur and later Madumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and a subsequent 30-km steep climb on the ghats leading to Ooty. We checked in the magnificent Taj Savoy Hotel. 

2 comments:

  1. Hey.. Landed here from a Google search on Bandipur..

    We visited there last week and spotted a lot of animals - bisons, wild dogs, deer, elephant, langur and a TIGER!!!

    Pics and video at:
    http://www.vishfulthinking.com/2009/12/trip-to-gopalaswamybetta-bandipur-and.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Vishy. Those were great pictures and i loved the way you posted them in the form of a narrative. And good you got to see a tiger. I was at Bandipur this day, exactly a year back. But since I took a 3.30 pm safari and it was hot, we did not spot a tiger. G

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