5th Feb 2022
Nagarahole forest is the home for many wild life, a natural habitat for many flora and faunas.
Little facts I was knowing about this forest from the internet. When I visited here it gave a totally different perspective to wildlife and forest.
We reached nagarahole gate by 10am and understood that 2 wheeler is not allowed in the protected wildlife sanctuary.
The stay in Jungle lodges and resorts was exceptional, the rooms, the facilities in the premises, the food and also the staff were very courteous, we roamed around the resort and had delicious lunch and were waiting for safari to start. We opted for late noon safari which starts at 3 30pm.
As we were accompanied by enthusiastic photographers, they really wanted to find the big cats of the jungle to click them, we started the safari ride and soon spotted the common sightings deer's, samba, sloth bears, wild boars, Gaur, crested eagle, giant squirrels, the hunt to sight the tiger was on and we started exploring the waterholes of nagarahole. Nagarahole has 6 ranges, Veeranahosahalli rane, Metikuppe range, Anechowkur Range, kallahalla range, antharasanthe range and Doddaryanakuppe range. The entire forest range covers 643 sq kms, and we were exploring mere 15-18 sq kms. We got many info's about the big cat of the jungle. Each tiger has its territory and it will be upto 40-45 sq kms and nagarahole has 137 tigers and the space for them is congested and not sufficient.
With the warning calls we near to one of the water spot we waited and we spotted a leopard which was very shy and it was very quick to hide itself in the bushes of the forest, we did not have sufficient time to click photos of it. And then again we waited and little ahead of the water spot we spotted the mighty predator of the forest, THE TIGER it was named as mooga as it has a slight wound on its nose. It was sitting and bushed and slowly it made moves and came out of bushes to give a clear view of its beauty and elegant sitting stance. We clicked lot of photos of mooga and it was truly an experience to see the tiger in the wild freely roaming in its territory. With it's passing by it was in evening 6 30 and we wanted to get out of jungle before it is dark.
Our driver rushed towards our stay, the sighting of the tiger and learning more about its facts by fellow photographers and forest personals was really good.
While in search of tiger we also spotted elephant, deer, wild pigs, bisons in the forest. Forest and its ecosystem left us crave of more time to spend in the forest and look for the wild which made us to decide for another round of safari in the morning time to try our luck in spotting another Tiger or leopard.
We had a delicious night meal at JLR and spent some time in watching photos and walking in the resort area and call it a day before we crash on the bed, as next day we need to start early for round 2 of safari with same photographer group.
6th Feb 2022
It was 5 30 am in the morning and it was colder than we anticipated, we boarded on to the Jeep and started early and again the search for the mighty predator of nagarahole was on, we first saw a major panic movement in the herd of deers, which is common when a predator is near by, we anticipated for a leopard or Tiger but it turned to be wild dogs which are one of the predators of the Nagarahole. There are only 3 predators in Nagarahole range those are Tiger, Leopard and Wild dogs.
We saw pug marks and followed the pug marks, we spoted pug marks of the cubs aswell. Even after extensive search and trying to visit all the waterholes of the veeranahosahalli range, we could not spot the tiger this day. We spotted small beautiful bird and spent sometime clicking pictures of it. Its called as bee eater. We stopped at chikpala water hole for some time observe water birds and few peacocks. It was hard luck for us we had to return without any sighting of the wild.
It is usually very hard to spot the tiger and leopard in the wild as they are spread over a vast territory and also they are usually very shy in nature and not so active to be a advent. We came back to resort to have a delicious buffet spread of breakfast followed by our check out from JLR.
A few words about the Jungle Lodge Resorts, JLR in nagarahole is called as Kings JLR. They are very well maintained vast area of space at the entrance of the nagarahole checkpost. They rooms were really big with living area, balcony, open roof bathtub area, very big bed room with basic facilities of water, coffee, tea, hot water, television. The time we spent in balcony area was memorable with reading about the tigers and leopards from the table top books kept in our room, we got most of the information from those books. It also contains beautiful photographs of the Tigers and leopards of Nagrahole and kabini. The resort have swimming pool, hammoks hung everywhere around the stays to relax. They have ample parking area and also fire camp place.
The dinner and lunch served at the centralized place for all the guests which is quite modern and also the food is delectable.
The staffs are quite co-operative and helpful to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. Bookings for JLR has to be done only via online through there websites. I'm also looking forward to explore other JLR stays in Karnataka.
The approach to JLR and nagarahole from Bangalore is via Mysore and Hunsur, two wheelers are not allowed inside the reserved forest area, also 4 wheelers are not allowed from evening 6pm to morning 6am.
Nagarahole is one of the prominent yet pristine forests of Karnataka, It is an adobe of endless chirps, gigantic trunks and ethereal predators including the melanistic panther, all woven together in an intricate balance in the cycle of life.
If you love and admire nature even in the slightest way, Nagarhole will steal your heart. We’d go back there again and again because even a lifetime of safaris isn’t enough.
