Bandipur Tiger Reserve

Bandipur was originally a private hunting reserve of the Maharajas of Mysore before being designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1941 and, in 1973, one of the first nine reserves brought under India’s newly launched Project Tiger programme. Its deciduous and scrub forests, watered by the Kabini and Moyar rivers, support one of the country’s most significant tiger and Asian elephant populations.

The reserve forms a critical piece of the larger Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, an unbroken stretch of forest connecting Bandipur to Nagarhole, Mudumalai, and Wayanad across the Karnataka–Tamil Nadu–Kerala tri-junction — one of the largest contiguous protected wildlife habitats in south Asia. This connectivity is what allows Bandipur to sustain viable long-term populations of wide-ranging species like tigers and elephants, rather than functioning as an isolated pocket of forest.

Getting there: Bandipur lies on the Mysuru–Ooty highway; the Bandipur Post Office serves the reserve’s main township and safari gate.