Bannerghatta National Park: Grand Safari
I visited Bannerghatta National Park with my family on 13th June 09. I had some relatives from my native therefore decided to hire a cab, we left our home (Near Hebbal) at 8.45am and reached Bannerghatta National Park by 09:30am. We were lucky to have no crowd at all or perhaps the deserving ones to come so early, we got the tickets within 3 minutes. In week ends & holidays Park charges are different than other days. Here is the table:
Week Days Week End/Holidays
Adult 100 135
Kid [5 to 12 years] 35 35
Senior Citizen 80 80
Fort Still camera you got to pay INR 20 & for Video camera INR 110. Once we got the ticket, we went straight to the bus queue, the bus operator told that he will start when there are 30 people (Small buses carry 30 while large buses carry 50 people). Better would be that you jump to the front seats or to a window seat to have a better view. Grand safari took us to 4 parts of the Park [Dear Park, Bear Park, Lion Park & Tiger Park]. Going early morning also gives you the advantage of watching animals in open and not in cage since early morning the sun is not that bright and shiny. We got perfect view of many dears, bears (few sat in the middle of the road posing for cameras), white tigers, lions, cubs, cheetah etc. and it was wonderful trip of 40-50 minutes. Kids with us enjoyed thoroughly. On the way back to Park from safari, there is a Butterfly park (Charges are separate there) that we skipped since my kid: Parv was not keen to see butterflies after watching tigers and lions.
There are lot of shops outside Zoo where bus drops you after safari, you may try sugar cane juice, coconut etc. and again enter into the zoo (with the same tickets) & watch snakes, birds, aquarium & other animals inside zoo. There is an elephant ride also.
Dont forget to carry your camera (& put it on image stablization mode as the road on safari is rough), better you wrap the wrist grip to your wrist to avoid dropping the camera.
Carry your sun glasses & hat for protection from scortching sun. Go light (perhaps with multipocket shorts or 3/4th)
: Vivek
