Bandipur National Park: A Wild Getaway

Best places to visit in Bandipur National Park, sightseeing & tourist attractions in Bandipur National Park

As jungle safaris go, Bandipur National Park in south Karnataka offers some of the best wildlife sightings in the country. Apart from game like cheetal, sambar, gaur, giant Malabar scurrile, peacocks, Indian rollers and variety of other mammals and birds one will almost certainly run into elephants. And if one is lucky one may even come across a pack of wild dogs hunting and maybe even a tiger. Indeed, Bandipur was one of the seven parks in which Project Tiger was first launched in 1973.

 

Map of Bandipur

Bandipur National Park, covering an area of 874.2 sq km in south Karnataka, is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. It is flanked by Nagarahole National Park in the northwest, Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu in the south and Wynaad rain forest  in Kerala to the southwest.

The National Park is nestled in the foothills of the picturesque Nilgiris mountains, 195 km from Bangalore at the half way point between Mysore and Ooty in Tamil Nadu (65 km from both destinations.)

 

Why Bandipur : Places You Should Not Miss in Bandipur National Park

 

Today Bandipur has about one-fifth of the world’s Asiatic elephant population and the highest concentration of the wild dogs in India. The former private hunting grounds of the maharajas of Mysore, it is an ideal getaway for those who have had surfeit of urban chaos and need to get back to nature. Here you exchange unruly bumper to bumper city traffic for the quiet parade of wildlife through the parks’ tall green grass.

 

What to see and do in Bandipur: Top Tourism Places Bandipur National Park 

Wildlife safaris… in the morning and then again in the evening… are the staple diet here. And green the predominant color. Yes, it is the colour and mood of the forest and the gods who created it seemed to have run amuck splashing it over the biosphere in every shade and hue imaginable. You will see it in the peacock’s tail, in the cool rustle of the bamboo fronds, in the green algae that mantled a water hole and in the sea of lush grass washed by early morning dew. The green merged into the velvety brown of the sambar and the high-stepping chital; the bare branch of a tree on which a vulture, handsome in its ugliness, waits; the black faces of a family of langur monkeys, the bushy tail of the giant Malabar squirrel…

Unlike many parks in India which remain closed during the monsoon months, Bandipur like many of the parks in South India, is open right throughout the year.

 

Local languages: Kanada, Hindi and English

Best time to visit:

November to February is when the climate is at its best and the temperatures range from a minimum of 11* C to a maximum of 25* C.

However the best time to view wildlife is between March and May for even though the temperatures range between a minimum of 25* C to 35* C, this is when animals must come to the waterholes to drink.

June and September, the beginning and end of the rains is a treat for those interested in insect life.

Avoid weekends when the park is crowded with day trippers.

 

Travel to Bandipur

The nearest town and market to the entrance gate of the National park is at Gundulpet (18 km).

 

AIR: The nearest airports are at Mysore (65 km) and Bangalore (190 km.)

 

RAIL: The Nearest station is at Nanjangud (55 km). However, Mysore (65 km) is better connected to the national grid

ROAD:

Distances from major cities

Mysore (65 km)

Bangalore (190 km)

Ooty in Tamil Nadu (65  km)

 

Excursions from Bandipur: 

NOTE: Bandipur is part of a larger tourist circuit that could include Ooty in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, the rain forests of Wainad in Kerala, Nagarhole National Park and maybe even Mysore and its surrounds.

 

SRIHAMAWAT GOPAL SWAMY TEMPLE (12 km)

The 700-year-old temple sits at the summit of a thickly forested mountain. After a brief darshan of the gods stroll across rolling green meadows to the edge of a vertical cliff which has a panoramic view of the dense forested slopes of the surrounding mountains. The setting is deceptively peaceful for within this savage paradise life unravels, raw and uncompromising.

 

Hotels in Bandipur

Aside for the Karnataka Tourism’s Jungle Lodge Camp, there are a number of private lodges and camps on the fringe of the National Park.

 

Bandipur Travel Packages:

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Helpful Tips

• Avoid weekends when the park is crowded with day trippers
• Make sure that your lodge/resort will be able to arrange your safari drive as you may not take your own vehicle into the park and must use the Forest Departments vehicles for a safari drive.
• There is more to a safari that seeing a tiger. Consider yourself very lucky if you should encounter the striped feline.