Once upon a time (just 1-2 week back), there ruled a WOMAN animal called “REVIEWER” in the CONCRETE jungle of MUMBAI along with her family. She used to get up everyday morning to start “hunting” (read that as cooking ;) for her family members. After hunting and feeding her family, she used to spend the day in gathering more “preys” (read that as “earning“;) for the rainy days.
One day she decided enough is enough. She wanted a change. So, glad with the fact that her cubs were liberated for a while from the den called school, she decided to gallop away to another CONCRETE jungle called BENGALURU. So, the whole family galloped and galloped till they reached there!!!
After some rest, they thought of visiting one green jungle that they had heard about called “Banerghetta”.
This place is supposed to be 22 km south of BENGALURU. Established in 1971, it spreads over 25, 000 acres and comprises the National Park, an Aquarium, a Zoo, Children’s park, Crocodile Farm, Snake park, and a Museum.
So, reviewer family, decide to rent a Qualis as they were already tired of galloping. As they reached the place, they noticed that they needed to buy tickets to enter the Park. There were varieties of tickets they could choose from. Rs 110 per head for Grand Safari, or Rs 70 for only lion/tiger safari and I guess Rs35 for the zoo. (Incase you bought the safari tickets you can visit the zoo for free!!!) The cubs and the senior animals (read citizens ;) had some concessions :)
So, the "reviewer" family bought the grand safari tickets and made the grand entry. Before entering, they decided to buy some “Lays” and “Kurkure” to munch on …as they were extremely hungry after sitting through the BENGALURU traffic. However, as soon as they entered the gates, their packets were pulled away by the monkeyish guards at the gate and the contents were emptied into paper bags… The Man animals were impressed with the nature-friendliness of the place although they could not help watch the same papers and other rubbish being thrown around… So much for the neatness. Maybe they should start fining the “man” animal who does so.
Next, they were made to wait for the bus which would take them around. While waiting inside a long cage-like queue… they looked around to see their brethren and young cubs all excited. After all its rare that you get to be inside a cage !!!! :)
The bus arrived and the “man” animals were loaded inside. The windows and the doors of the bus were suitably wired so that these “man” animals do not get excited on seeing their more intelligent counterparts and jump out to say a “hello”!!! There was a “driver” animal and a “guide” animal already inside. For the benefit of the “reviewer” animal family, the guide allowed one of them to sit right in the front of the bus and shoot pictures (not animals!!) … (obviously for the moola!!!)
The first enclosure was the herbivores region. The wild buffalos were quite amused to see the “man” animals inside the bus shaped cage… but they found the grass more interesting. The deers decided to have a race with the bus….which obviously they won. Since it was afternoon, probably many of the other “intelligent” animals were sleeping!!
The next round was into the bear region. As per the “guide” animal, there were close to 35 bears and indeed they were able to spot some 5-10 bears spread across the region. Again, the intelligent bears hardly bothered to look at the foolish animals inside the bus!!!
Next they were all taken to the tiger zone!!! The tigers had already been warned about the coming of the "reviewer" family. Hence, they were ready at the gates to greet their brethren. They tried to jump up the bus but were shooed off. This made the "reviewer" family very excited... Lots of pictures were shooted.
The next section they drove to was the NO17 zone!!! Wondering what this is? If you could do sheershasan (i.e. go heads down leg up), you will notice that NO17 reads as LION ;) (PJ!!) Anyway, king of Banerghatta met the "queen" of Mumbai and they could successfuly close down on the Kashmir issue !!!! Let the peace prevail...
The final meeting was between the white tigers and the mumbaikars which also generated excitement in the mumbaikars.
One thing that the reviewer animal observed was that inspite of being in so-called-open surrounding, animals looked tame.
But whatever said and done, it was interesting visit just to see the opposite - the animals in the open and man in cage!!! The ride through the "green" jungle was something different and natural.
Hence, after the satisfactory rounds, the reviewer family came back with a smile.
They could not visit the zoo due to the rains... however would recommend it to anyone who visits the place.
As an ending note, a quote by the famous Poet of the modern times “the aam aadmi ”
“God loves birds, so he made the trees,
Man loves birds, so he made the cages!!
God loves fishes, so he made the rivers and oceans,
Man loves fishes, so he made the aquariums!!”
For further information please look up
https://webindia123.com/wildlife/parks/karnataka/ban.htm
https://come2india.org/bannerghatta.html