5 Best National Parks in Karnataka With Timing & Ticket Price

Karnataka is comprised of the 5 most beautiful national parks which strive to protect the wildlife in Karnataka. In this article, we are going to share information about the national parks in Karnataka; we are also going to explore each of them.

The first question is, what are national parks? From the word itself, we can understand that national parks have some relation with the government. By definition, these are the parks established by the government separately to preserve the natural habitat, flora, and fauna in a particular area.

Not only do these parks serve to protect the environment in that area, but they also serve as a home to the rare and different species of birds and animals residing in that area or for the preservation of such species which are already getting endangered. These parks also act as a source of fun for visitors or have some great historic importance to an individual or geographical researchers and explorers.

One thing that always remains constant about these national parks is the fact that they all preserve the natural environment in which the plants over the animals residing in the particular area survive and grow favorably. That means no damage is made to the naturally established environment in the area, even when that area is a part of a National Park.

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Karnataka

Now, let us understand something about Karnataka’s state before we continue our discussion about the national parks in Karnataka.

Karnataka is located in the South-Western part of India. As per records, it is the largest state in South India or the southern part of India, while it occupies the seventh position in total ranking of all the states in India in terms of size.

The size of the state and its wide variety of diversity in flora and fauna are owes to the establishment of a number of national parks in Karnataka. That means Karnataka’s existing conditions are quite favourable for the diversity that we will be coming across in this article.

Flora and fauna – diversity in Karnataka

As mentioned before in the discussion, Karnataka is quite famous for its huge variety and diversity in wildlife or flora and fauna. According to some estimation, about 25 percent of elephants and 20% of Tiger happen to live in the forests of Karnataka’s national parks.

Karnataka owes its abundance or diversity to the region called the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats are actually quite known as a biodiversity hotspot. It means a variety of species are found to be inhabiting this region; even some of the rare species are also found here. Thus, this results in the availability of diversity in wildlife.

Now it seems to us and to some extent it makes sense that why there is so much importance of the national parks in Karnataka and also these are that famous to tourists and researchers.

Let us now explore some of the famous national parks in Karnataka one by one individually.

National parks in Karnataka

The 5 most famous and mesmerizing national parks in Karnataka are as follows:

Anshi National park
Bandipur national park
Bannerghatta national park
Kudramukh national park
Nagarahole national park

We are basically going to explore the flora, the fauna as well as the natural environment preserved in each of these national parks in Karnataka one by one gradually, as follows.

Anshi National Park

The Anshi National Park, one of Karnataka’s most attractive national parks, is located in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka, about 60 Kms away from the Uttar Kannada district. Recently it had gained the name Kali Tiger Reserve, mainly because it servers as a reserve for the Bengal Tigers.

This National Park is very much famous for its rich resources and increased diversity in flora and fauna. This park is also famous because it is considered one of India’s most endangered national parks because a lot of rare or endangered species of India can be found in it.

It occupies a land area of about 340 square kilometres, as per an estimate given. With such a vast area, there should be no doubt as to why there is diversity existing in the national park.

Basically, one can infer from the total land area available in this National Park that this place is very much significant for people who love to watch the wildlife and the natural environment, particularly the existing birds and the animals in the National Park.

This park is home to a wide variety of bird species; almost 197 different types of bird species inhabit the national park. Therefore it is no doubt that this place is ideal for bird watchers and explorers or people who have a keen interest in birds and other related things as their lives and various things.

During the spring season, a large variety of birds, especially the rare birds, can be found in this National Park more abundantly compared to all the other 4 national parks in Karnataka. Hence it attracts a lot of tourists in the spring season.

As mentioned earlier, the National Park has a wide variety of flora and fauna, which we are now going to discover in some details.

About the abundance in flora, this national park in Karnataka offers to support a wide variety of small trees, evergreen forests, and so on.

To list a few of the small trees found here, we have the following – Calophylluum Tomentosa, Garcinia Cambogia, Machilis macarantha, and so on. These are the scientific names of the trees available in this National Park; however, there is nothing to worry about if you have not much idea about the actual names of these trees.

Also, there exists such kind of abundance in the fauna in this national park. This national park happens to serve as home to many species as – Tiger, elephants, wild boar, Jungle cat, Indian Leopards, Leopard cats, and so on.

Now we move on with the discussion about the other 4 national parks in Karnataka.

Bandipur National Park

In the year 1974, the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka was established due to its abundance seen in the Tigers found in that area. The Bandipur National Park is yet again a very important national park in Karnataka at present.

In a hope to protect the population of the Tigers in the area, which was eventually declining, the Bandipur National Park was eventually established. Hence this National Park is also very famous as a Premier Tiger reserve in India.

It is located in the chamarajanagar district of Karnataka. The Bandipur National Park spreads over a total land area of about 874 square kilometres. It serves as a home to several endangered species of India.

In 1977, this National Park officially made the National Park under the intention or aimed to protect the abundant Tigers found in the area. Until then, this area served only as a Tiger reserve.

It can be clearly understood why this area was a Tiger reserve. Still, let us go for a detailed explanation about this statement just said.

We have seen that a wide variety of Bengal Tigers happened to survive in this specific environment in this area. With the development in the country, it had become a necessity to protect these Tigers as their count kept on decreasing, and gradually they were reaching the state of extinction.

For this purpose, a project named ‘Project Tiger’ was finally started in the year 1973, for the preservation of the Bengal Tigers, in which this area was recognised as a Tiger Reserve. As mentioned earlier, later on, this reserve was accepted as a National Park to protect the Tigers in Karnataka.

Like the other national parks, the Bandipur National Park, among the other national parks in Karnataka, is also quite famous for its richness in flora and fauna.

Let us now explore the flora in this National Park in Karnataka. The flora basically comprises the bushes, some stunted trees, and open patches due to richness in the grass. A variety of deciduous forests coexisting with tropical trees are also found in the national park, enhancing its beauty.

This diversity in the arrangement of forests is the main reason as to why there is a diversity in different species existing in it. This makes it one of the most mesmerizing national parks in Karnataka.

Not only there exists diversity in Flora but also in the fauna of this National Park. The National Park is rich in fauna like – Indian elephants, boars, Bengal Tigers, spotted deer, Indian leopard, striped hyena, and so on.

Animal species and a very wide variety species of birds, some rare ones too, are also found in this National Park. A few of them would be as follows – herons, ducks, pigeons, doves, falcons, eagles, and so on. On an estimate, about 230 varieties of birds are found in this National Park.

Hence, like the other national parks in Karnataka, this national park is ideally preferred by the bird watchers.

Bannerghatta national park

The Bannerghatta National Park is situated near the southern part of Bangalore in Karnataka. The name is quite interesting among the other national parks in Karnataka. In the year 1970, this National Park was founded while it took almost a duration of about four years to finally accept this area as an official National Park, adding it to the list of national parks in Karnataka.

The Bannerghatta National Park is estimated to spread over an area of about 260.51 kilometre square. It is found that in this National Park the rainfall is approximately about 700 centimetres.

Definitely, there is no doubt that this park, like the other national parks in Karnataka, supports a very wide variety of species ranging from birds to animals and even from trees to forests as a whole.

The rainfall occurring in this national park and the total area occupied by this National Park happens to be the prime two reasons why there is existing biodiversity in it.

Let us now explore flora and fauna of the Bannerghatta National Park. To begin with, let us first see the diversification in the flora. So the flora basically comprises some thorny shrubs coexisting in coordination with the dry deciduous forests in the area. Some small quantities of moist deciduous forests also happen to be situated in this National Park.

As mentioned before, also there are wide varieties of trees found. Some of them are as follows – Anogeissus latifolia, Grewia tilaefolia, Randia sp. and so on. These again are the scientific names of some of the trees that are found, but there are a lot more varieties of trees found in the National Park; need not be scared with the names thus.

The National Park also happens to be quite rich in the fauna, which comprises – gaur, elephants, leopards, barking deer, spotted deer, bonnet, langurs, and so on. Bengal Tigers also inhabit the national park.

Thus, this park also contributes to the protection of flora and fauna in coordination with all the other national parks in Karnataka.

Kudramukh national park

The Kudremukh National Park OF Karnataka was again created under the experts’ supervision to protect the Tigers residing in that area, just like the other one we came across. This again owed to the fact that a lot of Bengal tigers resided in the region, and there was a need to protect them from reaching extinction.

This National Park spreads over three main regions. These regions are named – Dakshina Kannada, Chikmagalur, and Udupi districts. Now one can easily guess that it has a lot of land area.

So on an estimation, it spreads over an area of about 600 square kilometres, which indeed is pretty large. Many rivers also flow near it, which is its striking feature compared to the national parks in Karnataka we know so far.

Hence as stated above, about the occupied area, the large area available to this National Park, as well as the rivers being located uniquely, provide the diversity and richness to this National Park as a whole.

So we will now explore flora and fauna found in this National Park. The flora basically comprises the Evergreen and the semi Evergreen forests. It is also a fact that at an elevation of about 1400 metres, the shola grasslands are also found, adding thus to the richness in flora.

The Evergreen forests include the following – Calophylluum sp. , Messua ferrea, Eucalyptus, Canarium strictium, and so on. These are a few of them to name; however, there are a lot more of them.

The fauna abundance owes its existence to – Bengal Tigers, dhole, spotted deer, barking deer, sloth bear, sambar, langur, golden jackals, and so on, and so forth. Some species of birds can also be spotted in the national park.

This National park is also visited very frequently by tourists and a lot of explorers.

Nagarahole National park

The Nagarahole National Park owes its name favorably to the Snake River or the Nagara Hole river found in Kannada. It is also quite famous by the name Rajiv Gandhi National Park.

The Snake River or the Nagarhole River flows through this National Park before it further joins the other rivers along its journey. This National Park spreads over a total land area of about 575 square kilometers.

As we have been discussing so far, this National Park, like the other national parks in Karnataka, happens to have all the favourable conditions necessary and sufficient for the survival of a wide variety of wildlife National Park.

It has a huge land area and a river to which it has earned its name to support its diversity and abundance of the different species of birds, animals, trees, and forests found in it naturally.

The flora in this National Park is majorly composed of Rosewood and teak forests. The deciduous forest mainly occupies the eastern parts of this national park. The western region is majority dominated by the tropical as well as the semi Evergreen forests. Note that the tropical forests found in the western region are moist and not dry forests.

The abundance in flora, as we understood, acts as a prime factor to serve the herbivores found in this National Park. Thus the fauna mainly comprises the following – Chittal, axis deer, Indian elephants, jungle cats, flying fox, Indian leopard, wild dogs, Bengal Tigers, and so on.

Not only is there a wide variety of animals found in the area, but we also find a lot of different species of birds inhabiting the National Park. Some of them could be identified as – egrets, ducks, kites, herons, cuckoos, swallows, woodpeckers, kingfisher, doves, nightjars, etc.

Reptiles are also found along with the birds and animals we have known so far. They include – crocodiles, Indian python, flying snake, wolf snake, spectacled cobra, geckos, and so on.

Thus we now come to an end to our discussion about the national parks in Karnataka. these were the five national parks that are quite famous in Karnataka.

They are of great importance not only for the tourists and historical individuals but also for protecting the natural environment and the different species of birds and animals, which are now getting endangered day by day.