I had visited this biological park with my family a few months back and have had a mesmerizing trip. This park is little far off the Bengaluru city limits but is well connected through BMTC busses. There are direct busses from Majestic bus stand or you may visit this park with your own private vehicles.
We went there on a Sunday morning but reached early and so there was not much rush. The greatest attraction of this park is a safari amidst this reserve forest. We had booked a closed jeep for my family. We had options to book a jeep or a mini bus. After boarding the jeep it started its journey and we had an official guide too with us. He was carrying a gun with him to face any emergencies and was explaining about each animal we met on our way.
The safari started with a group of herbivores. We could see many types of deer roaming across the park. The types include antelope, Neil guys, spotted deer, etc. They were very calm and were found grazing in the meadows of this park. After this we met a huge herd of elephants. They were bathing in the lake nearby. They were quite far off from our jeep so that reduced our tension. Zebras , buffalos and giraffes were the other inmates .
The most thrilling experience was that of the carnivore safari where we met a pride of lions in the open. They were lying just beside the road and I have never seen lions so close by and that too in the open. Children in our group screamed on seeing them but the guards warned us and told us not to make any noise . This might disturb them and might annoy them too. Theses lions had just woken up it seems and were yawning at us. We took some snaps and continued. After travelling for a few minutes we also met another group this time it was the Royal Bengal tigers. This too was a very scary experience. We had to wait for a while as they were crossing the roads. We also saw a white tiger busy having his breakfast. So he did not mind us. We also met many bears on our way through the bear safari.
This journey through a forest filled with ant hills, snake pits and lots of wild animals were really very thrilling and am sure everyone would just love it.
After the safari we entered the zoo. This also was a treat for the eyes to meet the other animals whom we did not see on our safari. As we roamed about in the zoo seeing different rare and beautiful soecies of birds and animals a group of monkeys also were following us. That’s another speciality here we see dangerous and wild monkeys such as apes and orangutans inside the zoo cage while local monkeys whom we commonly see in villages are roaming around in the open.
The park also has a beautiful butterfly garden in its premises which has different species of them. They also explain in detail the growth and life cycle of a butterfly for visitors to read and understand. There were many shops too selling stuffed animal toys, hats and other souvenirs. We also did some shopping from here.
The only thing I did not like here was the food served at the restaurant. It was much below normal standards and there was no variety available too. So its better if you can bring foos from home and have it inside the park at any picnic spot.
Overall it was a wonderful experience. I would recommend everyone visiting Bengaluru to visit this park too.