While reading the review on Vedanthangal close to Chennai written by Mr. Jaideep, I was reminded of a similar place called Ranganathittu near Mysore in Karnataka. This place is also a bird sanctuary and a lake with lots of small bushy trees around. Normally tourists love to visit this place for its greenery and the boating part of it.
I had visited this place quite sometime ago and hope that it retains the same attraction. My prayer may be more than what is normally expected from badly maintained tourist spots, but then I can’t but help praying for the place as it was really too good. We spent almost about one whole day walking around and sitting on the islands etc.
The lake has small islands in between with lots of bushy trees where several kinds of birds arrive at different seasons to spend their time and enjoy the place. Unlike, Vedanthangal, this place has certain very strange inland birds also that are normally not seen by common people like us and they are a beautiful sight on the place.
In addition to the inland birds that come there, we have birds from Siberia, Australia and as far as North America too which are a rare sight. Sometimes, the islands on the lake have several birds on the trees and if you visit the place close to sunset in the evening, you will hear the chirruping and all kinds of sounds made by different kinds of birds that is extremely beautiful and melodious to the human ears. Quite in contrast to the vehicle horns in the crowded roads of the city blaring into our ears. Apart from these birds, there some very weird insects in the water and on the islands, colorful and black or white, which you will never see in the cities or villages. May be mainly because of the bushy trees and plants around.
The boating part of it is also very different from the usual boats being used to take tourists around the lake. This place you would normally find boats made of cane which really look very ethnic and great.
If I exactly remember, it must be about 12 or 13 kilometers from Mysore and is approachable by cars and tourist vehicles. The Government of India maintains the place and manages the tourists visiting the place. I think the ideal time to visit the place would be sometime December.
I am not very good in providing the expenditure and visit time details, I would prefer to leave that part of it to the tourists, because time schedule and expenditure are ones individualistic perspective in life. I have given an approximate/ minimum details.