Nagarhole National Park
 About
Bandipur National Park
Welcome to one of the best
places in the world to find the tawny, black-striped
Royal Bengal Tiger, elusive and stealthy, noble and
regal: Nagarhole. Karnataka's Nagarhole National Park
(officially known as the Rajiv Gandhi National Park)
is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India's
largest stretch of protected forest, an area which
includes, besides Nagarhole, the neighbouring
sanctuaries of Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wynaad.
Established in 1955 as a wildlife sanctuary, Nagarhole
was designated a national park twenty years later. The
park today stretches in a series of gentle hills and
valleys, over an expanse of 640 sq km, north of the
river Kabini. The park is centred around a perennial
water reservoir formed in 1974, when the Kabini River
was dammed.
Nagarhole's vegetation is refreshingly different from
Bandipur's dry scrub- moist deciduous forests,
including bamboo, teak, eucalyptus and cassia, cover
much of the sanctuary, providing a refuge for a wide
range of animals and birds. Nagarhole has all the
resident wildlife of the Nilgiri hills: Nilgiri tahr,
Nilgiri langur, bison, leopard, Asian elephant, wild
boar, deer, dhole (wild dog) and porcupine, besides
tigers. A high canopy of trees- up to thirty metres
tall in some places- harbours rare birds such as the
endangered Malabar trogon, the Malabar pied hornbill
and the crested hawk-eagle.
Nagarhole saw some upheavals in 1992, when quarrelling
between the wardens of the park and the local
villagers resulted in arson which had an enormously
adverse impact on the park and its wildlife. It will
still take a few years for Nagarhole's forest and
animal count to get back to normal but there has
already been a resurrection of sorts and things get
better every year.
Entry Requirements
An entry permit, costing Rs 15, is applicable for all
visitors to Nagarhole. It can be obtained at the
entrance to the park. Charges for boat rides, jeep or
elephant safaris and accommodation are additional.
Access
The major railhead closest to Nagarhole is Mysore, 80
km away, with train connections to a large number of
towns and cities across peninsular India. Nanjangud,
55 km away, also has trains coming to it, but
they’re fewer in number. Bangalore, with excellent
air and rail links to the rest of the country, is
about 220 km from Nagarhole, while the hillstation of
Ooty is about 240 km from the park. Buses connect
Nagarhole to Bangalore (a ride of about 6 hours) and
to a network of smaller towns across Karnataka,
Tamilnadu and Kerala. Alternately, you could hire a
vehicle in one of the larger towns- Bangalore is
especially convenient- to get to Nagarhole.
Within the park, there’s ample scope for wildlife
watching. Jeeps can be taken for a drive through
Nagarhole, or you can go off on elephant safari- the
best way, in fact, to go deep into the jungle. Hiking
is also allowed through the park, although only in
some areas where there are fewer chances of
encountering a hungry tiger or a masth elephant! The
lake is open for a slow coracle ride or a swift
motorboat skim.
Best time to visit
Nagarhole can be visited all through winter and
through the pre-monsoon half of the summer. The winter
months from November-February are exceedingly
pleasant, and are the best time to go if you don’t
like being hot and sweaty. The summer, on the other
hand, though it may be pretty hot, is a great time to
see wildlife, including the tiger. The dry, hot season
(March-May) is the time when the animals gather at the
lake, allowing for great wildlife viewing. The
monsoons (June-September) are best avoided, as the
entire road network gets washed out, and leeches and
dense undergrowth proliferate in the forest.
Accommodation options in
Nagarhole:
Kabini
River Lodge Bandipur
Kings
Sanctuary Nagarhole
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