Bandipur: Sighting leopards

Our visit to Bandipur was on 28-29 May 2011. It was a year since our last JLR trip and we were very eager. We were thirteen of us and as usual, took a force traveler. I was quite excited as I had a new SLR camera with me as compared to the Coolpix that I had before. To meet that, it also happened to be the best trip in terms of wild life sighting.

Bandipur JLR is in an open space, and the cottages are modern. In the afternoon, I enjoyed photography in the gardens around the lodge. At 4 pm, we were taken for safari by jeeps. This required coming out and entering the conserved forest by public road. The drive had tamed elephants, many spotted deer and Grey Langur monkeys. Once we entered the forest, the sightings increased and we saw big herds of Gaurs, stags and many birds.  We could also see a leopard cross our path in full view, but could not take the picture as we were stunned by the sudden appearance of it. After some time once again we had the monkeys and deer acting in panic and could see one more leopard hiding behind the bushes looking at us. This time I could take a picture of its face, though not very clear. We also saw the carcass of a big Gaur that was killed possibly by a tiger.

Langurs

Stag

Spotted deer running away from Leopard

Gaur's carcass

Leopard peeping from the bush

Panicky Langur

Sighting the leopard was the main subject of discussion during the evening unwinding session and we were looking forward to the safari in the morning.  We got ready early in the morning and left for the safari. The sunrise was beautiful. Once again, there were many sightings of deer, mongoose, Gaurs, wild boars many birds including the Serpent eagle and Brahmi myna.  We could see pug-marks of a tiger. We were back by 9am, and had a sumptuous breakfast. The sightings had made us excited and we decided to visit Ranganathittu on our way back, thus left the jungle lodge early.

Mongoose

Red Lapwing

Tiger Pug-Mark

Serpent Eagle

Gaur feeding

Brahmi Myna

Boars

Ranganathittu was amazing and had a good variety of birds though it was peak summer. We took the boat that took us around to show more birds from close. The new SLR was put to good use. Interesting were the dwellings of Mud Swallows.

We returned to Bangalore in the evening.  This trip remains in my memory for the exciting sighting of leopards in the wild.