Bannerghatta Biological Park

24th May 2015
I was excited to finally make plans to go to a wildlife sanctuary, as I had never been to one before. I was in Bangalore for an internship and so was Harkirat(Harry), a friend from college. Even though he lived twenty kilometres away, we decided to go this wildlife sanctuary, on the outskirts of Bangalore called Bannerghatta National Park. The national park had a zoo, a butterfly park and safari as well. I was really looking forward to it. The National Park opens at 9.30 and closes at 4.30-5 in the evening. We had decided to go early morning so as to have time to visit everything without the need to hurry. The National Park was twenty kilometres from where I lived, which was Kormangala. We had booked a cab and left around 8.30 from my place. We reached before 9.30 only as it was a Sunday and early morning, making the roads traffic free. We got tickets for the zoo, butterfly park and the AC bus safari. The first was the safari trip. When the bus came, I was a little surprised to see the bars on the windows. The same thing was for jeeps over there. I had expected it to be an open jeep, like the ones they show in movies, not covered, and certainly not with bars and grills. But then it did seem kind of intuitive, a while later, to have these, as a measure of precaution, since it was going to be a safari after all. They wouldn’t want lions or tigers jumping at us and getting into the jeep or the bus, through the window. It said on the ticket board that we’d see herbivores, bears, lions and tigers on the safari. The bus came at 10 and we boarded it. It was a mini bus, similar to an RTV, with a seating for 13 people, as mentioned by Harry.

The first enclosure we entered had Herbivores written on it. The bus driver was mentioning the animals we came across. There were deers, of different species, neel-gai (or blue bull), and elephants. All of us clicked pictures after pictures of the animals. There were two foreigners travelling with us as well. One of them had a DSLR and the driver took special attention that he could get good photos clicked, giving us enough time to click them as well. There were elephants tied up by chain in their legs, and three of them bathing in the pond. But when two of them came out, we saw two little baby elephants between both of them. It was so cute, their entire family, with parents on both side and kids in the middle.

Nilgai

Deers

Happy Elephant Family

Enjoying our Sunday morning

The herbivore journey came to an end when we entered the next set of gates, which had a board saying Bears on it. As soon as we entered and took a turn, we saw two bears walking on the side of the road. When they saw the bus approaching one of them went away, while the other one continued walking with the bus. I was again surprised by seeing the bear walking on all fours and it just looked so different, than the ones that I had seen in advertisements and movies. Movies really do influence a lot of experiences these days. After moving ahead, we even saw this sort-of structure built up where there were many baby bears. That was all for the bear park.

The bears at the side of the road

Baby bears

Next we entered enclosures with board having nothing written on it. Only tiger and lions were left, so whatever it would be, we both were really excited. We moved ahead some more, to find the driver saying “Lions on the road” and all of us started clicking photographs. It was so amazing to watch them. There were two and one of them even roared so loudly. It was unbelievable. Then one of them went back to the jungle, and the other one sat on the side of the road, like a sphinx and looking at us, as if posing for the photographs. After a lot of photographs and admiring, we moved further, to find a lion and his lioness, in the jungle, enjoying their lazy Sunday. They were busy in themselves, not concerned about us or getting clicked. Further ahead were three lioness in a barbed enclosure, probably gossiping. That was all for the lion safari. But well that was more than I had ever imagined. So I really felt happy that my first trip to the wildlife sanctuary was going so well.

Look at us, the king of the jungle.

Smile please!

The lion and lioness, in no mood to pose.

It was the last leg of the safari. The best for the last, they say. Well, tigers seem the best to me too, considering the fact that they are endangered, and might get extinct in a few years, if not protected. We got lucky here too as we got to see a lot of tigers as well, even white tigers. When we entered we saw two tigers, one white and the other normal, sitting on the opposite sides of a barbed fence. Harry and I made up their story as we went along, that they might be two star crossed lovers, like Romeo and Juliet. We saw another tiger, sitting on a pedestal, as we moved forward, who we assumed was the mother of the white tiger, considering what the society would say about this inter-caste marriage. Further ahead, was the brother tiger, kept in an enclosed structure, who would beat the other tiger, for loving his sister. To complete the family, father tiger was also sitting on the pedestal, lost in thought. With this our tiger family was complete. Lastly, we saw a tiger bathing in a pond, with only its head visible above the water. I got a photo clicked with him, and even though there might be nothing cute about tigers, but it was really cute watching him in the pond. With this last tiger, our safari came to an end.

Star-crossed lovers

Mother of the star-crossed lovers, deep in contemplation.

Brother of the star-crossed lovers

Father of the star-crossed lovers

Tiger enjoying his bath

The bus dropped us in front of the butterfly garden. Never before had I heard or been to a butterfly garden, so I had no clue as to what to expect. The path to the garden had butterflies flying all around. The entrance had beautiful flowers, and butterflies hovering around them. The garden was actually a dome shaped structure with lots of flowers and plants and butterflies everywhere. There were boards mentioning the name and photo of butterflies. There were also a pond with fishes swimming in them. The structure was beautifully built. We clicked many photographs of flowers and butterflies. There was also a room with the origin of butterflies and a presentation on them, their history and evolution. After we exited from here, the last destination was the zoo.

One side of the entrance to butterfly park

Other side of the entrance of the butterfly park

Inside the butterfly park

The pond in the butterfly park

The butterfly park dome

Inside the butterfly park

The zoo was huge. Cages and boards everywhere. We started from one lane, and ended up in some other lane. There was no specific path and it was just all zig-zag. There was so much to see. We saw iguana, snakes – cobra and king cobra, ducks and birds – peacocks, macaw, african parrot, owls, hen and much more, elephants, ostriches, leopard, wild dogs, hippopotamus, crocodiles, monkeys, porcupines, turtles, deers and cows. Harry clicked a lot of pictures as well. We were really tired after so much of roaming around in the zoo, and finally took a  cab and came back to Kormangala. It was an amazing day, the best part being the safari. Not everyone gets to see all the animals, so I believe we were lucky to see it all, and being first timers after all. This trip to the wildlife sanctuary was one, worth remembering.

Iguana Green

King Cobra

Turtles

More turtles

Colorful Rooster

Some species of Monkey

Trying to sleep

Deers

Ostriches

Hippos

General Information
1. The park remains open from 9.30 am to 5 pm
2. There are individual tickets available for the zoo, safari and butterfly park. A common ticket is also available, which varies from 500 per person for AC bus safari to 2500 per four persons for AC jeep and 3000 per six persons for AC jeep.
3. Food and water is allowed. There are few shops as well, which have snacks, soft drinks, chips, icecreams and fruits. There are a few handicraft shops as well.
4. Sunday is a particularly crowded day, especially in the afternoon. There is huge crowd and I’d suggest to go early morning, and not plan for the afternoon.

Sunday afternoon, people buying tickets