Nagarhole National Park Travel Guide

Nagarhole National Park, officially known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park, is one of the finest wildlife reserves in South India and forms a crucial part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected forest area in India. Located in the Mysuru and Kodagu districts of Karnataka, the park covers about 643 square kilometers and shares its borders with Bandipur National Park to the south, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, creating a vast, connected wildlife corridor of over 5,000 square kilometers that allows animals to move freely across a large landscape.

Nagarhole is named after the Naga Hole, which means snake streams in Kannada, referring to the winding streams and rivulets that run through the forest. The landscape is dominated by moist and dry deciduous forest with teak, rosewood, and Indian kino trees, interspersed with open grassy patches and the Kabini River and Nagarhole River that form the lifeline of the park. The Kabini backwaters along the southern edge of the park are one of the most spectacular wildlife viewing locations in India, where during the dry summer season, huge numbers of elephants, gaur, deer, and other animals gather to drink at the shrinking water source, often watched by tigers and leopards lurking in the surrounding forest. Nagarhole has one of the highest densities of wild tigers and leopards in the country and is also home to wild elephants, gaur, dholes, sloth bears, sambar, chital, and over 270 species of birds. The Kabini region on the southern bank is particularly famous for melanistic leopards, or black panthers, sightings of which are more frequently reported here than almost anywhere else in India.

This Nagarhole National Park travel guide covers the best time to visit, the Kabini experience, safari options, where to stay, and everything you need to plan an outstanding wildlife visit to this remarkable South Indian reserve.