Bannerghatta National Park Wildlife Safari pics

I don’t remember going to Bannerghatta National Park earlier. Guess I’ve never been there earlier. Don’t know how I missed out on this popular place just outside Bengaluru…

Went to Bannerghatta for a half day visit last Sunday. Went off better than expected. Sandeep had warned us that there’ll be a huge queue for the jungle safari. We reached there by cab+bike by 10.15 AM and the camp wasn’t that crowded. As we entered tiger safari area, our guide Keshav exchanged a few words with the driver. From their conversation I understood that during the last Safari the previous day, they couldn’t spot any tigers and visitors had to return disappointed. He was hoping that won’t repeat today and so did I.


Spotted a few wild bears, oxen, wild cow and other herbivore animals first and eventually entered into carnivore area where lions and tigers were housed. A lioness and 3 of her cubs were our first catch.



Our safari van driver, Venkatapati, turned out to be an excellent photographer as well. When the van stopped near some wild animals he almost snatched the camera from me saying he’ll take the photographs. :) I hesitated for a moment, but then gave him the camera, partly due to his enthusiasm and mainly because he had the most strategic place in the entire van for photography. While rest of the van is fully covered with mesh, only driver’s seat window had clear view, so from his seat he had better chance of taking a clear shot.


He turned out to be an good at photography too. Within seconds he figured out basic controls like wide, tele etc and started taking snaps. For example, below photo of the lioness yawning, it taken by him. After sometime I almost forcefully took my camera back, as he was doing all the clicking and I was just watching. Immediately he took camera from another tourist and continued his photography.


However, unfortunately I couldn’t get a clear shot of any white tigers. Spotted about 4 of the 5 white tigers in the park. One was extending its Sunday morning sleep on its bed (images below), the other was stationery with its back towards us (above). Two more were in cage, couldn’t get clear view of them for photograph.

Apparently even these animals have various groups within them and if left loose, they would fight among themselves. Hence they are let out one group at a time, while rest are caged.

Post safari, we came back to the zoo. Now the queue for Safari had grown into a fairly long one and we felt good that we came early. The range of animals there is fairly high. The zeebra below was hoping to get some food from visitors, but when I got a clear view, it refused to budge and I had to settle with a photo of its rear…
 
Most of the animals couldn’t be photographed well due to heavy mesh surrounding them. You better visit in person to checkout.

Sunday morning well spent. I’ll probably go there again, just to get different poses of those tigers and lions. BMTC has frequent bus service to Banngerghatta National Park (Route 365 from Majestic).