bandipur

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The nearest railhead is Nanjangud, 55 km away, while the nearest roadhead is the town of Gundulpet, 20 km from Bandipur. Both are, however, fairly small places, with few transport connections to the rest of the state. A better idea, therefore, would be to arrive at Bandipur via Mysore or Ooty.

Bandipur is 80 km from Mysore, and a similar distance from Ooty, and takes 2 ½ hours by road. Mysore is further connected to the rest of south India by train, while a narrow gauge train comes to Ooty from the plains station of Mettupalayam. Mettupalayam has train connections to a number of other towns in Tamilnadu. Once you’ve got to Mysore or Ooty, you can take a bus or hire a car or taxi to get to Bandipur.

Private vehicles are not allowed to tour the park, so buses abound, rumbling and roaring their way around, drowning out any chance of seeing animals. Better options for getting around in the park are the forest department jeeps and vans. The Forest Department also organises elephant rides of about an hour (or more) each, which take you deeper into the forest than you’d otherwise be able to go.

Once the private game reserve of the Mysore maharajas, Bandipur, the large forest (866 sq km) south of the river Kabini is now part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and one of WWF’s Project Tiger sites. It neighbours the Nagarhole National Park, the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu and Wynaad in Kerala. All together this area makes for the largest protected forest in India.

Bandipur has a sizeable population of wildlife - elephant, spotted deer and sambar, gaur and flying squirrel, four horned antelope, Nilgiri langur and sloth bear. Amongst the reserve’s most prominent animals are its 1,900-odd elephants.
The Royal Bengal tiger (75 in the Park) and leopard are even more elusive here than elsewhere because the moister region that they inhabit falls under the protected core area where casual visitors are not allowed. Mostly dry deciduous forest with an abundance of teak on the periphery, the moister core area of Bandipur, has large tracts of fragrant sandalwood and rosewood. However, some summers this area too gets unbearably dry and during these times the animals migrate to the neighbouring wetter Mudumalai Park.

Best time to visit

The best season depends on what you are looking for; if it’s wildlife you seek then the hot months from March to May are when animals flock to the watering holes, and hopefully to the ones close to your machan (but be aware: droughts also push animals into Mudumalai); for cool comfort the months of November-February are great when the flora is resurging after the rains; the rainy months of June-September bring the elephants to the fore, bring the temperatures down and the metalled roads of Bandipur don’t get washed out either.

If you are really interested in the animals, you must avoid the weekends when hordes of visitors come down from nearby cities for the day.

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