Bandipur National Park
I’m a wimp. I grabbed the nearest person to me when the show-offish male teeeeen-ager elephant came charging towards us. He was all pissy. No wonder, we were sitting there watching him eat. And pointing. Backing up the jeep so we could get a better view. And a picture.
I
just spent two days on safari. Safari! It sounds so exotic. People I know
go on safari, I don’t go on safari. And when they go on safari, they’re
talking about Kenya and Tanzania.. I went to a wildlife park in Southern
India called Bandipur. It’s in the state of Karnataka. It looked difficult
to get to which is why this park appealed to me. Less people. A few train
journeys later (I’m OK with the loos now,
it’s all a matter of squatting), a two hour taxi ride and I arrived at
Tusker Trails.
Honestly, Tusker Trails could have been a shack with no running water and I’d have been excited. Anything to NOT be near a flat, squeaking rickshaw horn or walking on a road glistening with bubbly spit patches. Enough already. At least for a day or two.
The first evening safari I went on was hilarious. Our jeep consisted of two French women with very sharp, coifed hair-do’s, a Mexican couple, our guide and me. Notices in the guest cottages said specifically to NOT wear any sort of perfume as the smell could encourage jungle bees and other alarming pests to come sniff us out. I smelt my mum in the jeep; one of the French women was drenched in Opium. They had the fanciest shoes on their feet. One had little gold slipper sandals.
The safari got off to a good start. We saw spotted deer immediately. Lots of camera clicking and ewwws and ahhhs. It began to rain a bit. And then within minutes, it began to monsoon. The rainwater was running down the French ladies’ heads as if they were drain-pipes. At one point, we got stuck in such a deep pool that the water started coming in the side doors of the jeep (I was in the front seat so very dry.). We saw a sloth bear and her cub, wild boar, barking deer, giant squirrels (the size of raccoons), parrots, bison and lots of kingfishers.
It’s funny how things become old hat so quickly. By the second day, none of us even bothered to turn our heads when we saw the spotted deer. Tigers. The unspoken prize was to see a tiger. No one really talked about it much, almost as if it was rude to bring it up. As if that would be the ONLY reason one would come on safari. For sure I wanted to see a wild elephant. On the second day we saw many of them. They come to soil pits and eat the soil in the hopes of finding some salt.
Bandipur is a huge deciduous forest. Very green but not Hawaii green. More like up behind the Ross Watershed in February. Except here the trees were teak and sandalwood. Over 40 officers have been killed in Bandipur recently. The area is controlled by a brute who poaches the sandalwood. He kills the officers who are patrolling and in his way. Such is the demand for sandalwood. No wonder the forest was so empty of people. I think in the entire four safaris I went on, we passed one jeep and that jeep had men with huge guns dangling out of it. Apparently there was a high ranking officer on board.
The morning I left the camp, the owners were off to go trace a lady leopard they’d released into the wild 20 months prior. They had released a male with her but he died. Another wild leopard came into the park to replace him and now the female is pregnant. It’s hard to track her though because she is no longer wearing her collar. Her husband didn’t like the collar and kept swatting her neck. Her neck became badly infected with bugs and so they had to remove it.
Tusker Trails is a private resort within Bandipur Park. They have six cottages and a delicious swimming pool. Included in the nightly rate of $70 are twice daily safaris (each two hours long), all meals, and elephant rides for those who want them. As you cannot enter on the park trails unless you are with a guide, it’s sensible to sign up with one of the few resorts that operate within the park. There is Forest Park accommodation but you are relegated to go on safari on a large, loud, diesel, state-operated bus which sticks to the main road through the park. There is no telephone at Tusker Trails so it is best to arrange your transport via taxi or private driver and car beforehand. The accommodation is minimal and comfortable, and there are porches outside of each cottage perfect for reading. There is a bonfire pit for after-dinner conversations. To make a reservation at Tusker Trails, contact: Hospital Cottage, Bangalore Palace, Bangalore, tel (080) 3342862. They will be open over Christmas and New Year.
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