In Search of the Elusive Tiger: A Retrospect in Pictures

Posted on: May 20th, 2009 in Around Bangalore, Experiences, Travel, Weekend Trips | 318 views

This entry is part of the series, In Search of the Elusive Tiger.»

In early May, my folks and I traveled across Mysore» , Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta» , Bandipur» , Mudumalai» , Masinagudi» and Ooty» .

For me, it was the hope of spotting a tiger in the wild and some good photographs, apart from showing my folks this particular part of South India. For my folks, it was a break from the routine and the hustle bustle of Bangalore.

This post recaps the whole journey in pictures. You will find my hand-picked shots in this post, and I do hope you enjoy this ride as much as you did the other ones. I know I did!

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More From Vivek Dhage's Portfolio and Photoblog

Entries in this series:

Leg 1: Bangalore to Mysore
Leg 2: Mysore to Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta
Leg 3: Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta to Masinagudi
Leg 4: Masinagudi to Ooty and back to Bangalore
In Search of the Elusive Tiger: A Retrospect in Pictures

Mysore, renamed to Mysuru is the second largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division and lies about 146 km (91 mi) southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka.

Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta, is a hill (betta in Kannada) located in the Chamarajanagar district of the state of Karnataka,at a height of 1454 m India and is extensively wooded. It is also the highest peak in the Bandipur National Park. It lies in the core area of the Bandipur National Park and is frequented by wildlife including elephants. Dense fog predominates and covers the hills round the year and thus gets the prefix Himavad(in the native language of Kannada) and the temple of Venugopalaswamy (Lord Krishna) gives the full name of Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta.

It is approximately 220 km from Bangalore and 75 km from Mysore on the Mysore Ooty road -10 km away from Gundlupet,which is 60 km away from Mysore. There is a motorable road all the way to the top of the hill. Entry fee is collected at the forest depeartment checkpost at foot of the hill. Visitors are allowed from around 6am till 5pm. Overnight stay on top is not allowed.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himavad_Gopalaswamy_Betta

Bandipur National Park is one of India’s best known sanctuaries, and is an important Project Tiger reserve. It is located in the Chamarajanagar district of southern Karnataka in South India, and is contiguous with the Mudumalai National Park in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, the Wynad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, and the Nagarhole National Park to the northwest. It is home to around seventy tigers and over three thousand Asian elephants (as per the 1997 census), along with leopards, dholes, gaur and sloth bears. Bandipur is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandipur_National_Park

The Mudumalai National Park (currently, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve) lies on the northwestern side of the Nilgiri Hills (Blue Mountains), in Nilgiri District, about 80 km north-west of Coimbatore in the westernmost part of Tamil Nadu, on the interstate boundaries with Karnataka and Kerala states in South India.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudumalai_National_Park

A village on the border of the Mudumalai National Park.

Ooty, short for Ootacamund (officially, Udhagamandalam, sometimes abbreviated to Udhagai), is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

It is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills and stands at an approximate height of 9,080 feet (2,767 m) above sea level.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooty