A trip to the wilderness of Bandipura

It was time again for a visit to the jungles of Karnataka. This time I decided to go to Bandipur National Park from May 23rd to 25th. Bandipur NP is located in the Chamrajnagar district of southern Karnataka.  After completing all the arrangements for my accommodation at JLR, Bandipur, I called my friend to check if he would be interested in joining me during the weekday for Bandipur. Without hesitation the answer that I got was “Yes”.

We were discussing on what are the locations that we can visit enroute Bandipur. We both were interested in capturing the Blue Tailed Bee Eaters as this was the perfect season to watch them. After few minutes we finalized our trip plan and came up with a different agenda.

 Bangalore (5:30 am)-> Ramnagara (Watch Vultures) -> Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary(RBS) -> Bandipur (2 nights and 3 days, 4 safari’s in total) -> Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary -> Bangalore.

As we reached Ramnagara around 7am, we found 7 LBV (Long Billed Vultures) perched on the rocks quietly.  It was an overcast cloudy day. The weather was chill and windy. We hanged around there for an hour, took some shots and landscapes of Ramnagara.

Had a good time in RBS. Tried to shoot some against the light but didn’t succeed. It was too hot and we decided to proceed to Bandipur so as to not miss our lunch there  We had our formalities done, pushed ourselves in the room and quickly charged our batteries.

We kept our expectations on the sightings to near zero as the weather was cloudy and we expected rain. We took our first safari on May 23rd which was evening safari.

Saw this Blue Beard Bee Eater beautifully perched on the blossomed bamboo tree.

Saw the other common mammals like Langur, Indian Boar, Spotted Deers, Sambhar Deer. Suddenly it was too windy and a unique call emerged from the top of the tree. It was first time for me to hear that call. It was a call of Changeable Hawk Eagle. We couldn’t photograph it. We moved on as it started raining and within 10 mins it stopped. I thought its going to be a no-sighting day even for birds, but was happy that we can see the lush green forest after a shower.

As we were proceeding on a steep road, I got to see a Leopard crossing the road in a jiffy. I spotted it first due to the vantage point that I had in the jeep. I immediately informed the driver about the Leopard and asked him to go slow and stop. It crossed the road so fast and didn’t fail to stop before vanishing. It was looking away from us and thats when I got this shot.

It just went inside the bush and I told myself ‘Oh God, What a sight it was’. My first Leopard sighting. Our jeep driver did an excellent tracking and he went ahead, we all were confused on his sudden move. He went to the end of the road and waited there for few minutes. We couldn’t see the cat, driver said, we are going to wait here for sometime. By the time two other jeeps came in one ahead us and other behind. They sensed we are waiting for some big cat. 5 mins past, 10 mins past, slowly we could see something moving in the bush.

This huge male was very careful in taking each step, couldn’t hear any kind of sound when he moved. He then slowly popped out of the bush just to see those three jeeps. He quickly climbed the tree and gave good 2 mins for us. Marked his territory , rubbed himself against the tree trunk and jumped to next tree and got down in a flash. It was an amazing sighting we had in Bandipur.

We were happy to spot a cat during such conditions, again we were proved wrong by the nature, you never know what you are being offered. Its pure luck.

We started our next morning safari with same kind of situation. It was pretty much calm, silent safari that we had. I would rather say, it was a Peacock safari. We saw so many Peacock’s than anything else. I tried against the golden light few shots.

We saw few jeeps waiting and got to know about the alarm calls, our same jeep driver, didn’t stop anywhere and went ahead. Same confused look on our faces, but this time with a confidence that he knows what he is doing. We stopped at a place with good vantage point.

Our friend Chirdeep was shooting some warblers on the near by bush and suddenly from the view-finder he saw a tiger entering the frame. I will leave it to your imagination of what kind of experience that would be. He slowly said, Gowri .. A tigress who had given birth 5 months ago. She has a litter of 4.

I was searching for her as she walked behind our jeep. It should be less than 15ft distance, we started clicking, she didn’t care to look at us. Her cubs were not to be seen.

Our luck continued. We came back happy and was thinking whether to go to GS betta or to drive on the Bandipur -> Masinagudi road to try our luck.

We decided to go on the Bandipur -> Masinagudi road and kept the GS Betta visit for next day after the check-out from JLR on the way to Mysore.

We got to see only Langurs on the side of the road.

The first two safari’s it was raining cats and but not dogs. The remaining two safaris it literally rained. We wanted to use this to shoot some Chital’s shots.

Our safari’s were done and we packed for Mysore. As per the plan, we decided to visit GS Betta. It was windy, after rain and cloudy. As we reached the top and parked our vehicles, we were stunned by the beauty of the grassland forest in front of us with Elephants grazing happily. What more you can ask. It was a real heaven’s corridor. We kept clicking with different perspectives and one here for your eyes.

I dedicate the above image to my wife and my sweet son, with out their support, I would have not gone out and experienced the same.

We left GS Betta full of images and memories. Had lunch at Kamat in Mysore and did a quick stop again at RBS. Light too harsh, tried some flight shots.

Reached Bangalore at around 7:45pm with loads of pictures and fresh memories in mind. What a delightful trip it was!!

Posted by IT professional, wildlife photographer and NTP member, Kesavamurthy on his recent trip to Kabini.Keshava blogs at Vignettes of the Wild and you can see more pictures here