Bedazzled by the wilderness of BRT. Review on BRT Wildlife Sanctuary

Biligiri Rangana Betta popularly known as BR hills offers excellent combination of holiday at hill station and an option to explore wildlife. If you have been longing to see big cats in wild, this is place where your long pending urge may get full-filled. So if you have couple of days free, then get set go. This was our second visit to BR Hills.

How we reached: BR Hills is around 230 Kms from Bangalore. We took Mysore-Bangalore road till Mandya and then took deviation to Malavalli. Few stretches from Malavalli to Kollegal were bad. There were hardly any vehicles after Mallavalli. So the drive was pretty easy and scenic.

Bangalore->Mandya->Malavalli->Kollegal->Yellandur->BRT->K Gudi

Alternatively one can drive till Mysore and take Nanjangud/Chamarajnagar road to reach K Gudi.

Bangalore->Mysore->Nanjangud->Chamarajnagar->K Gudi

Accommodation: We stayed at K Gudi Wilderness camp(managed by Jungle Resorts) which is located inside the B R T Wildlife Sanctuary. The mesmerizing fully bloomed Gulmohar tree attracts your attention the moment you step into the camp. The camp has 3 log huts and 8-9 tents with no electricity available from 10 pm to 7 am. We deliberatly choose the last log hut(Biligiri) as there were stories of wild Elephants and Tigers passing near Biligiri in the night. There are hammocks for each tent/log huts which are mostly occupied by monkeys. The paths leading to tents and log huts are lit by hurricane lamp in the night. Golghar a place where breakfast/lunch/dinner gets served can accommodate around 30-40 guests. There is a recreation hall, audio-video room where wildlife documentaries are screened in the evenings. Interestingly there is a board displayed, reporting the sightings and are updated by naturalists everyday. There was more number of leopard and sloth bear sightings in March/April this year. We never saw one!

Food: Breakfast/Lunch and Dinner is included in the package. The food was average when compared to other places managed by JRL. Staff is very prompt in taking feedback from the guests. So we did mention the areas of improvement. The only complaint that I have was, food served was oily.

Adventure Activities organized by Camp:

Jeep Safaris: Guests are taken for the jeep safaris twice a day. Trained naturalists help us spot wild animals inside the forest. We spotted a pack of wild dogs, Elephant herd; White socked Bisons, barking deer, sambar deer, wild boars and spotted deer. We spotted a herd of Bisons which were hardly 12 feet away from our jeep. It was fascinating to see a huge male bison gracefully grazing. I had never seen a bison that close! The jeep trails are neatly designed in a way that the paths go near the water body thereby increasing the chances of spotting wild animals.

Elephant ride: 20 minute elephant ride will be fun for kids. The camp has 3-4 tamed elephants that are used for rides. The tamed ones with a chain attached to their legs are left in wild at night. The mark of chain helps mahout to trace and bring them back next day.

Organized Trek: A 4 Km trek within jungle is best way to explore flora and not fauna. We were accompanied by a local guide who carried a wireless and a binocular. We missed spotting a sloth bear by few seconds. We found skeletal remains of a deer which was most likely hunted by a big cat. Also got a chance to smell fresh tiger urine and poo. Unh.it literally stinks! No doubt why tiger poo is used as a pest repellant. Our guide went on dissecting the poo only to tell us what the tiger must have eaten. My heart skipped a beat when the guide told us that a small stretch of path in a jungle is a blind spot for both humans and elephants. There were couple of occasions when a small herd came rushing and the folks had difficulty in escaping. We quenched our thirst by eating some wild gooseberries. The entire trek took about 3.5 hrs.

Places Around:

Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple: A temple dedicated to Lord Rangaswamy is a visitor's attraction. Temple has a viewpoint which offers splendid view of forest.

BRT Wildlife Sanctuary: Spread over an area of 540 Sq Km, it is considered as a biogeographic bridge between Eastern and Western Ghats. Recent survey at the sanctuary has noticed increased number of leopard/wild dog population. The three major predators are Tiger, Leopard and Wild Dogs. Soliga tribes who live inside the sanctuary grown coffee and collect firewood for their livelihood.

Dodda Sampige Mara: A giant tree which is around 2, 000 year old is worshipped by Soliga tribes. 100 stone lingams near its trunk do not go un-noticed. Visitors are not allowed to visit this place during summer because of forest fire. We had visited this place earlier in 2005.