One day trips - Visiting Bannerghatta Zoo & Safari.

[mjothi]

Having done around 900KMs during my Chennai trip after getting my Aveo, I was thinking of giving it for 1st service on this Week and going to Hogenakkal for the weekend. When I called Vijay Motors, they gave the appointment on Monday. So, I dont want to take the car to 300-400KMs at this time and hence looking for some places within 100 Kms to & fro.

So, thought of covering the Bannerghatta Zoo. I have read this forums on Safari and was eager to visit once with my family. Started on Saturday, 10th May 2008. I dont want to fill the tank since it already had around 3/4 tank and I was planning to giveit for service. Just filled air in neat by bunk and started the journey.

Reached the Park around 8:50AM and parked the car. I was the 2nd person to be in the parking lot. I found only one i10 parked in there. Parked the vehicle and went to the ticket counter. They said it would open by 9AM. But opened at 9:20AM. Took the Grand Safari ticket and headed into the Zoo. The safari was scheduled for 10AM. So, had a short walk in the zoo.

It was 10:15 and we had the vehicle ready for Safari. But I found that they made all people (both Grand Safari and Tiger & Lion safari ticket holders) to take the same vehicle. So just wasted 35bucks per tickets

Anyway, initially we could not spot any animals except for some Bisons and Dear. Then we entered in to the space where they had all bears. We could spot many Bears. One was dancing with his head, shaking it left and right. May be the guy (or girl!!!) is in happy mood.

After passing the Bear portion, we headed for the Lion & Tiger section. When we entered there, we saw many people doing some maintenance work and the Tigers are inside the cage. Oh no. We were worried and cursing our bad luck.

But once we moved from there we could still spot some of the Lions and Tigers freely roaming around in other side.

We had a couple of Guys with professional Cameras and long lens. The Guy was sitting just on the engine next to driver and the driver was also in good mood. He use to stop for the Guy to take some good snaps. And we too enjoyed those moments.

Then we returned back to the Zoo. Started seeing each of the animals. They had one Hyna and that guy was always sleeping showing his back . Never suceeded to see him. We had good time with the Zebra. It posed for us for the Photo session. Then I saw some guys bribing it with bananas to make it come near them to take pictures. I wonder when our guys going to learn. The very place they stood had a board saying to not to feed or tease animals. Umm..

They had a lot of Crocodile and active too. At the end they had the Deer and Spotted Dears, Elephants etc. While returning we also seen the Cobra, Phython and others. Since we were exhausted by this time, we could not visit Butterfly park and I was planing it for some other day.

Best time to visit would be morning 9-9:30. Because, I see a huge crowd for the safari after 11 or 12noon. If you plan for 10am safari, then you could spend the time after that in the zoo. There are also one Jungle resort opened. Could not get any time to enquire, but seems it ready for accomodation.

So, here goes the pictures (Got many pictures. will post one by one...)

[mjothi]

Could not post all Pictures in last post, so continuing in this...

[Su-47]

Nice writeup man and good photos too.

[snaronikar]

Nice write up and pics. But I think you should check up the spelling. No offences meant. ;-)

Anyway, initially we could not spot any animals except for some Bisons and Dear.

It should be deer right???

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice write up and pics. But I think you should check up the spelling. No offences meant. ;-)

Anyway, initially we could not spot any animals except for some Bisons and Dear.

It should be deer right???

Great write up Mjothi!

Nice photos too.

Hey Sanronikar,
Just between the two of us - I have a feeling that he might have spelt it correctly after all. You never know what he might have "spotted"!

(Just kidding, Mjothi!)

[menonrajesh]

Good one there @HappyWheels

It was a nice post, mjothi. Good snaps too.

[csentil]

The tigers and lions in Bannerghatta are so sad. They look fat, tired and bored. No offence meant to the felines, but I felt so sad looking at them.

However the zoo has improved tremendously from what it was 5 yrs back. Great job.

Is that tree full of rat snakes still there. That was the best part of the zoo !!!

I really envy the guy who caught sight of 3 tigers in Corbett !! Man, was he lucky or what.

[mjothi]

@Sanronikar: Oops. Sorry about that.
@HappyWheels: You have good sense of humour Great!!! But beleive me, I "spotted" deer only

I agree with csentil. The tigers and Lions are not much active. Not sure if depends on food or training or environment. I have seen animals in zoo of other countries. You should see how active those are.

But I really appreciate the project tiger to preserve those. I see a increase in their numbers in each of our zoos.

[amitoj]

This saturday decided to pay a visit to Bannerghatta Biological Park (thats what the board says at the entrance)

We reached there by 9AM. There was nobody there. Even the parking attendant was still having his morning tea. Anyway, so i went and stood in the queue for the ticket, though the window was closed and there was just one person ahead of me. I ogled at that person's L series lens and 40D camera. Chatted him up, and told him that i am looking to buy a dslr myself. Not surprisingly, he said i can go fo 400D, 1000D or 450D. All are good cameras.

Anyway, back to the zoo. Well, last time i went there it was 3 years back, and that too in a group of friends and families. So i had hardly paid any attention to my whereabouts. But this time i looked around at the animals and couldnt help but feel sad for them. Even the so called Safari is nothing but a ride through the zoo only, except that the animal enclosures are bigger. The Safari is a scam. Dont go for it.

I wished i could do a Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys kind of act here, if you know what i mean.

Whats funny is that i saw some people of African origin also taking the Safari. Hehe... couldnt help but wonder what their reaction would have been!

Anyway, for me it was a disappointing trip.

Here are some photos though:

A croc having breakfast


His companions lazing around


Iguana


Yawning Hippo. Didnt have enough time to properly compose this shot.


Sloth bear, i think he was licking his paws. Disgusting.


Reminds me of that old ad of Lipton, "Sherdil jawaano ki" something something

[hellstar]

wow i love the last picture ...nice write up ..

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by hellstar

wow i love the last picture ...nice write up ..

Thanks. I wish i had not zoomed in so much to cut off the poor thing's ears though. Heat of the moment i guess.