[Satshan]

India is home to many National parks and Wildlife sancturies within diversity of its wildlife, much of its unique fauna and excels in the range. India has an amazingly wide variety of wildlife animals and birds that live in the diverse terrain of the country. India houses this huge variety of animals in its 89 national parks, 18 Bio-Reserves and more than 400 wildlife sanctuaries. However, due to irresponsible interference of humans with the ecosystem has resulted in the loss and extinction of many species. Hence, conservation of these biodiversity rich spots and their wildlife in India have become important.

For many of us, visiting a zoo/National park is a childhood fascination. Many of my friends in Bangalore recently visited the Bannerghatta Zoo/Safari and discussed great reviews. Me and wifey were specially excited about the Jeep safari here. Hence on 20th Dec 2013, we planned a day trip to visit the Bannerghatta Wildlife park & Jeep safari. I called my office colleague and he was ready to join us along with his wife.

We started from Bangalore at 7 am (from KR Puram) and picked up my friend and his wife from Mahadevapura. Then, via Outer ring road we cruised steadily and reached Silk board signal. Joined the Hosur road and continued straight. Since our departure was quite early, everybody was hungry and we were looking for a nice restaurant along the hosur road. Halted at Sri Krishna Sagar Restaurant along the service road before breakfast.

After a delicious breakfast, continued further. Joined the NICE Ring Road and continued for another 10 kms to reach the Bannerghatta Main Road. The National park/zoo is 7.5 kms from the NICE road. Road condition is average on the Bannerghatta main road, watchout out for some bad patches. Road traffic was less in the morning time. We reached at 9:30 am at the parking area of the zoo.



The Bannerghatta National Park can be divided into three sections:

* Bannerghatta Zoo & Reptile park (Bannerghatta National Park Timings are 9 am to 5pm. The park is closed on Tuesdays)
* Butterfly park
* Jeep safari (Tiger, Lion and Bear) (Safari Timings are 10 am to 4:30 pm)



Out of the above three, the most interesting part was the Jeep safari since wildlife here can be witnessed in an open habitat. Lions, Tigers, Elephants and bears are let free in the jungle.

Jeep Charges are Rs. 2500/- for a group of 4 people. We booked a Jeep instantly as we reached the booking counter area. This also includes access to the Zoo and snake park. One very good thing I felt was, the ticket rate for Foreigners is same as that for Indian citizens. Many places in India charge a heavy fee for International visitors which I believe is an unfair approach.

We visited the zoo from 10 am onwards. The premises in kept clean and well maintained. We had one hour before we could go for the safari. We decided to visit the zoo post lunch.

By 11 am, we started our Jeep Safari ride. The duration is 45 minutes/per safari. A forest officer drove the Jeep (Mahindra Bolero Camper) and gave us very useful information about the wild animals here. The safari provides the tourists with an opportunity to have close look at wildlife as they drive through the winding roads. There are 36 Tigers/Tigresses, 6 White Tigers, 32 lions/lionesses and 84 bears in the safari.

Mahindra Bolero Camper


We started off with the Bear safari. Unfortunately, we could not see lot of bears here since it was close to noon time. Many of them were already taking shelter in their homes. Only few of them were outside under the shade.



This was followed by the Tiger safari. We were very lucky this time. For a while, we were speechless and awestruck to see the big cats walking on the road. One of them took a nice swim in the pond. Capturing these shots in the camera and videos was worth every penny.

Tiger Trail




Infront of our Jeep!



A dip in the pond











The Royal look..





Glaring at us!



Sun basking!



Raising his paw saying Hello! A moment well-captured!



Further spotted the white Cat..





Further we proceeded to Lion safari. Though view of Lions was a bit far away, some Lionesses were very close to our jeep. It was a great feeling to witness these beasts so closely. We even didn't dare to open the Jeep's windows

The Jungle King!







The Lioness



The BEST SHOT!



Posing for a snap!



While returning from the safari, we witnessed a lovely herd of Elephants.



Log continued..

[Ddrive]

Originally Posted by Satshan

One very good thing I felt was, the ticket rate for Foreigners is same as that for Indian citizens. Many places in India charge a heavy fee for International visitors which I believe is an unfair approach.
[/b]

I too have personally felt this many times. I think you are right.
Wish to know what our bhpians think about this
Thanks

[Satshan]

By 12 pm, we completed the safari visit. Further, we visited the Butterfly park.

Butterfly park and Interpretation center:

The Butterfly Park is spread across 7.5 acres (30,000 m2) of land. It comprises a butterfly conservatory, museum and an audio-visual room. The butterfly conservatory has a polycarbonate roof and is a 10,000 sq ft (1,000 m²). circular enclosure, inside which the living environment has been carefully designed to support over 20 species of butterflies.









The environment has a tropical setting — complete with the humid climate, an artificial waterfall,a narrow walking bridge and host plants and shrubs that attract butterflies. The conservatory leads to the second and third domes, which house the museum containing dioramas and exhibits of carefully preserved, exquisite butterflies.









By the time we completed visiting with the butterfly park, it was 1.30 pm. We wanted to have lunch in a good restaurant nearby. We could only find small hotels serving Dosas/snacks. It is advised to carry home food if possible. We ate some samosas and Dosa's for lunch.



Our Zoo visit from the morning was left incomplete. Came back to the Zoo which also houses the snake park. The snake park is another attraction in Bannerghatta National Park with a unique collection of reptiles. It has different breeds of snakes, Chameleons, monitor lizards, alligators, crocodiles.

Alligators



Chameleon



Crocodiles



King Cobra



Monitor Lizard (climbing the tree)



Python





Other variety of snakes


The zoo comprises of other wild animals like the Cheetahs, Jackals, wolves, Bisons, Hippopotamus, Deer, Ostrich, Porcupines, Turtles, etc.

Bison



The Cheetah!







Hippopotamus



Hog Deer



Jackal



Ostrich



Porcupines



Sambar



Turtles



Log Continued..

[Satshan]

Birds such as African Grey Parrot, Black Crowned Crane, Blue Gold Macaws, Brown Pigeons, Cocktail Parrot, Eclectus Parrot, Great Pied Hornbill, Green Winged Macaws, Herons, lady amherst Pheasant, Palm Cuckatoo, Red Crested Pochard, Red lorikeet, Royal Pigeons, Scarlet Macaws, Silver Pheasant, Sun Conure Parrot, White Peafowl, etc can also be witnessed.

African Grey Parrot



Black Crowned Crane



Blue Gold Macaws



Brown Pigeons



Cocktail Parrot



Eclectus Parrot



Great Pied Hornbill



Green Winged Macaws



Heron



Lady Amherst Pheasant



Palm Cuckatoo



Red Crested Pochard



Royal Pigeons (Commonly known as 'Masakali')



Scarlet Macaws



Silver Pheasant



Sun Conure Parrot



White Peafowl



Around 5:30 pm, we were done visiting the whole zoo. Everyone was tired walking the entire day and it was time to leave back for home. We reach home by 7 pm.

Finally, a big hats off to the Bannerghatta Zoo management who maintain so many animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians in an incredible way. Surely, a must see place for anyone visiting to Bangalore!

[mayuresh]

Let me be the first to thank for a great travelogue and photo coverage.

The last shot of post 1 looks very dangerous.. A vehicle and so close to the giants? Are they the staffers known to the giants?

Also I think "Cheetah" (IMHO) is a different species. The one in the photograph titled after him is a leopard I guess.

[Satshan]

Originally Posted by mayuresh

Let me be the first to thank for a great travelogue and photo coverage.

The last shot of post 1 looks very dangerous.. A vehicle and so close to the giants? Are they the staffers known to the giants?

Also I think "Cheetah" (IMHO) is a different species. The one in the photograph titled after him is a leopard I guess.

Thank you Mayuresh. The vehicle is driven by a member of forest officials.

They are very much acquainted with the behavior of these beasts.

Yes, may be these are Leopards. (Not cheetahs).

[guyfrmblr]

Thanks for sharing your experiences at Bannerghatta National Park. Even though I stay very close to this National Park, my last visit to the park was around 15 years back. I think its time for me to visit the park during a weekend.

Originally Posted by Satshan

We started from Bangalore at 7 am (from KR Puram) and picked up my friend and his wife from Mahadevapura.

You started from Bangalore! My house is located 4 km beyond the National park near Jigani and your sentence makes me feel that I stay somewhere deep inside the forest Till now I was thinking that I stay in Bangalore .

Then, via Outer ring road we cruised steadily and reached Silk board signal. Joined the Hosur road and continued straight.

After a delicious breakfast, continued further. Joined the NICE Ring Road and continued for another 10 kms to reach the Bannerghatta Main Road.

Since you are coming through Hosur road, the better option is to continue driving in Hosur road till Bommasandra, take a right and travel towards Jigani in ring road and the park is just 4 km from Jigani. This road is good with less traffic. You can avoid the rough patches and mad traffic at Bannerghatta road.

[saion666]

Came across this today, not sure what's causing the lions to leap at this particular Innova.


http://www.thenewsminute.com/article...id-lions-49407

[haria]

Originally Posted by saion666

Came across this today, not sure what's causing the lions to leap at this particular Innova.

The lion doesn't look too aggressive. It looks more playful. I can just hazard a guess. In my street, all the dogs chase an indica cab. Many cabs ply, but generally, when this cab comes, all dogs are on alert and they will be barking and running behind it. We were curious and asked the driver once why they were targetting his car. He sheepishly admitted, once he ran over the leg of one of the dogs which was sleeping on the street and that day all the dogs chased his car and after that it is a regular experience. Maybe something like that would have happened with the lions and they remember that bad experience.

[centaur]

Originally Posted by saion666

Came across this today, not sure what's causing the lions to leap at this particular Innova.

Maybe they are mistaking it to be an elephant given the colour and the size

[saion666]

Originally Posted by centaur

Maybe they are mistaking it to be an elephant given the colour and the size

That's a shame for the 'Mahindra' Xylo though. Would have worked for the marketing team of Mahindra who loves to relate their cars to random animals.