KABINI RIVER LODGE

KABINI RIVER LODGE
Kabini River Lodge is situated 220 Kms south of Bengaluru (90 Kms south of Mysore) in the state of Karnataka.. This is located on the Southern fringe of the Nagarhole National Park which has been rated by the British Tatters’ Travel guide as one of the top five wild life resorts in the world. This is the first Eco-Tourism venture of the Government of Karnataka. This area was once the location of hunting lodge of the Maharajas of Mysore.

We reached the lodge from Bengaluru around 12 noon on 25th March, 2011 by taxi. It takes about 5 hrs. The roads are excellent except for the last five kilometers stretch which is a forest/village path.

The lodge is situated on the banks of Rive Kabini and consists of regular resort type accommodation and tents. The tents are erected on plinths and are very comfortable. We stayed in tents.

On the other bank of the river is the Bandipur National park.

We took two jeep safaris into the forest one the same afternoon we landed and another on the next morning. The safaris last about two and a half hours.

During the jeep safaris we sighted peacocks, langur, elephants, Indian Gaur, Wild Hogs, large groups of spotted deer and some barking deer, four horned antelopes and Sambar. As soon as we entered the forest, there was large scale disturbance. Deer, birds and monkeys were all shouting indicating the presence of a predator. In spite of waiting for nearly half an hour we could not find any of them. On the second day too, we heard a lot of commotion by a number of animals and waited to try our luck. Suddenly a leopard was seen moving just behind the bushes. It was walking leisurely along and we had a good look at it. However in our excitement of having seen a rare animal everyone forgot about the cameras. We were busy pointing out to each other the location of the animal as it was moving in the bushes. It was very thrilling.
Later we sighted a few Indian giant flying squirrels and red giant flying squirrels.
In spite of heavy poaching between 2007 and 2009 the NagrHole national park is reputed to have the largest population of Indian Elephants.

The park has rich forest cover, small streams, valleys, and waterfalls. The main trees found are teak, sandal wood, Rose wood and Silver Oak. There are a lot of other trees of dry deciduous forests.









The park is said to have more than 270 species of birds including the 'Critically endangered' Oriental white-backed vulture, greater spotted eagle, greater grey headed fish eagle, peacocks, pea fowls, yellow legged green pigeons, blue winged parakeet. With the help of the Forest guide we could spot quite a few of them.

In the afternoon we had an hours ride in CORACLE a round boat used by the locals for crossing the river. It is quite scary to sit in the boat. It is amazing how it is maneuvered.


Later we took a motor boat and traveled along both the banks of the river Kabini. It was a great experience. We saw very large groups of spotted deer and elephants. Whole families of elephants were in the water, playing, drinking and rolling. There were a few young ones also in the group. We saw 7 to 8 groups of 5 to 6 each along the river. The boat takes us as near as possible and the motor
is switched off. The boat is stand still and all tourists enjoy the show by the elephants. We move on to the next group a little while later.

We were told that the water was about 50 ft deep at some places and has quite a large population of crocodiles. Again we saw a large variety of birds along the banks and in the river.

In the evenings films on Nagarhole and other wild life parks are shown by the resort.

After staying two nights and having experienced great safaris we left after breakfast on the 27th March, back to Bengaluru.