[recker_us]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

I have sent a PM with the Gmaps location info. Because of my reply now, you can only go to this place tomorrow.

Cheers

Can you send me the GMap locations pls.

Thansk,
JP

[dot]

Some nostalgia these beautiful pictures bring in.

We used to cycle down to this place from IISc during middle-late nineties. After Jalahalli there was nothing on both sides of the road till one reached Hassarghatta. Somewhere inbetween there was a 100 ft rock with a temple at the base. We used to climb to the top and see all the way to Nandi hills.

Now one cant even trace that rock. It is hidden in middle of houses.

At least the grasslands seems to be still intact. Lucky you.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

@Pavan, this place was actually discovered by Rudra and Jaggu, we guys started using this place for car shoots much later, in fact we even had a Tbhp car shoot meet here long ago.

We went there first sometime in August 2008. Nice place to get an open broad land..

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

We went there first sometime in August 2008. Nice place to get an open broad land..

Rudra sir, what was the time at which you took these amazing photos?

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Rudra sir, what was the time at which you took these amazing photos?

err clicked the THANKS button again by mistake .

Amitoj check this thread (An amatuers day out with the big daddy of this forum !!) here, we had a lovely evening there.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

err clicked the THANKS button again by mistake .

Amitoj check this thread (An amatuers day out with the big daddy of this forum !!) here, we had a lovely evening there.

LOL. I dont mind

But thanks for the link!

Is there any particular season that's more suitable to go to this place?

Also, if I am not mistaken, then this would be on the way to DD Hills, right?

[rjstyles69]

dd hills as in DevarayanaDurga Hills, if yes nope this place is en-route Nrityagram in Hesserghatta. There aint any season as such, depends on what pictures you wanna click. Check post #21 on this thread, the place almost resembled the grasslands of Masai Maara. After the monsoons its like what you see in Rudra's pictures.

[rjstyles69]

Looks like this place caught the eye of some ad' company too. Saw this ad' on TV yesterday and am pretty sure its the same place

YouTube - ‪Zella Diamonds Ad‬‏

[srinivasmhn]

I am from this place. Off late lot of Bangalore city crowd visit this place on weekends. It used to be quite place and also very clean. With so many people coming now it is fast becoming garbage place.
At least they should some common sense to use a basket dustbin and throw away in some garage place. You will now see empty bottles and lot of plastic around.
Day is not far away when this place will lose it shine.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Looks like this place caught the eye of some ad' company too. Saw this ad' on TV yesterday and am pretty sure its the same place

YouTube - ‪Zella Diamonds Ad‬‏

This place is really famous now...My friend told me that the climax of a Kannada movie "Hudugaru" is shot here. I haven't watched the movie...People who have seen may confirm.

Originally Posted by srinivasmhn

I am from this place. Off late lot of Bangalore city crowd visit this place on weekends. It used to be quite place and also very clean. With so many people coming now it is fast becoming garbage place.
At least they should some common sense to use a basket dustbin and throw away in some garage place. You will now see empty bottles and lot of plastic around.
Day is not far away when this place will lose it shine.

I completely understand your concern here.

When i went there for a photoshoot of my car, I saw this.
I saw 2 to 3 couples "enjoying privacy" and a small family who had come for a small snack party (surprisingly they had come in an 108 ambulance).
After they left, they left chips covers, water bottles among others.

Plastic covers, Water bottles, alchohol bottles all around the place was unfortunately a common sight there.
Many people are now able to buy honda civic in our country now but most of them have not yet learnt basic civic sense unfortunately

[rohanarthur]

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

I live in Sahakar Nagar. I wanted to check if Byalkere Peacock reserve really has peacocks?

Well?
I am planning to go here this weekend, and would really love to sight some peacocks. If not here, is there any other place close by that I can see peacocks?

Yes, I am suffering from a recent peacock fixation.

[Freebird82]

Stumbled onto this thread by chance, and what have i been missing

This drive is on the agenda now. And yes, all the pics are quite mesmerizing. Especially the Fiat groupies. But the one that takes the cake is the Bug Under the Tree.

Somehow i think they should have used the pic for the promotion of the movie "Armageddon".

[rdna]

Originally Posted by srinivasmhn

I am from this place. Off late lot of Bangalore city crowd visit this place on weekends. It used to be quite place and also very clean. With so many people coming now it is fast becoming garbage place.
At least they should some common sense to use a basket dustbin and throw away in some garage place. You will now see empty bottles and lot of plastic around.
Day is not far away when this place will lose it shine.

Definitely echo your thoughts!! Had been there on a ride few months back and loved the serenity. Though the sun was beating down on us and the dirt track was raising a lot of dust, I wasn't really complaining. Posts like these go viral on the Internet and the place really loses its sheen :(

Nrutyagrama is almost a sacred place for dancers. So, in case you are visiting, please make sure you look around and don't make much noise. The place is really beautiful!

[NPV]

I think we have several folks here who like the Hessarghatta grasslands, would be really sad if it were to give way to something like this - I hadn't heard about any such plan till I came across this so thought I'll share it here. (Disclaimer-I'm not associated with this campaign in any way).

[ashwinsid]

Probably off topic & might be offending to photographers, but I would like to point out this article to those who are planning to drive to these grasslands.

for full report & a PDF document with detailed maps of how vehicle movement has destructed the bird habitat, please google "The Hesaraghatta Study" (not sure if rules allow me to link to an external blog)

The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and are laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs.

A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide and extensive network of vehicle tracks amounting to about 43 km. About 136 ha of habitat was either lost or disturbed because of vehicular movement and on an average, 20 vehicles were found to be pursuing birds on weekends and holidays. If one considers the area coming directly under the wheel, it amounts to almost six standard football fields!

The assessment was carried out in December 2012 by independent researchers and students from St Joseph’s College using the plant line transect method, on-site measurements and imageries to assess the full-scale damage to the habitat.

“Apart from habitat damage, we also witnessed several incidents where unethical means such as chasing the bird till it was tired and reluctant to fly were being used to photograph birds, especially the rare, vagrant and migrant birds such as kestrels and harriers”, says Mr K S Seshadri who has worked on road ecology in other parts of the country.

A rare species of butterfly the Lilac Silverline (Apharitis lilacinus) was observed and photographed after a span of 103 years, during the study by one of the students. Persistent off-road driving could also destroy this rare and such protected butterfly species in this area, apart from grasses and other smaller life forms.

Dr Krishna points out that this problem is not unique to Hesaraghatta. “It is already rampant in other lake beds and other wilderness areas where nature photography and eco-tourism exists. We need transparent and systematic damage assessment surveys everywhere, especially where vehicles are entering wilderness areas.”

The study recommends several methods to mitigate the impacts of this unregulated mode of operation. It stresses that self regulation is the best way forward (even though it has had limited success in the past) for the habitat, life-forms and for photographers.