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..