It was summer vacation and a trip to Bangalore! The kids need to go out and obviously malls and cinemas get boring after sometime. So wanted to show them something interesting. Planned to visit Bannerghatta National Park. Well, there’s a subtle difference between a zoo, national park and a sanctuary. Zoos are where animals are kept in cages, or small enclosures. National Parks are more like forest-like habitat in which animals roam around freely and you see them from within a vehicle, typically as in a safari. Sanctuary is similar to national park, but mostly this term is used for birds. This is my understanding and you’re welcome to correct me if I am wrong. 🙂
This park is located about 25KM from Indira Nagar in Bangalore and it took us around an hour to reach. There was a nice facility for car parking, just adjoining the park. The area seems to have gotten a facelift with a new bus stand. As we entered, we were in for a shock looking at the queue. Easily about 100 or more people for the safari ride. With no other choice, we went and stood in the queue hoping for it to move fast. I should say, it moved pretty fast and it was very well-organized.
The authorities were definitely people with consideration for visitors. Quickly in batches of 25, we were moved to a enclosures which was shady with a roof, had a place to sit, and was open in the sides which made it airy and well-ventilated. This was because each batch would fit into a safari vehicle. I was impressed by the arrangement. Clearly regulated, no confusion, no jumping the queue, and it is worth mentioning that the people were a little more disciplined than what I have seen back home. Guess it is the general attitude that is a shade better than here.
We were soon seated in a safari van, much faster than what we expected. We spotted deers, Elephants, Bison, Tigers, White Tigers and Lions in the same order as I mentioned. My first doubt as soon as I saw a deer was ‘How the hell would this survive with tigers and lions in the vicinity’ 🙂 Obviously, they weren’t together. As we proceeded, each animal was in its huge enclosure with proper fencing and huge gates. It was like going into one gate after another. The place is huge and it takes about 50 minutes for the whole trip.
I have to mention that the driver of our van was really doing his job well. Again and again, this is one of the very positive things which I was happy about. He literally went an extra mile to ensure that we saw all the animals. He could have ‘just done his job’, but he was really taking pride in what he did, again a quality that I haven’t seen in Chennai for quite sometime now.
Back after a nice experience and a few nice clicks. There was also a zoo attached with this National Park, but we gave it a miss as we had to proceed to watch a 3D movie in Forum Mall. After a couple of hours in the hot sun, suddenly Malls, cinema, food court sound so inviting 🙂
Remembered our recent pathetic experience in the Chennai Zoo and I was wondering if it will ever change!
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