If you have spent most of your school days busy reading Corbett’s books, ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ and have been a fan of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’, if you spent hours watching the National Geographic and Discovery and the Animal Planet channels you should at once embark on your own to enjoy the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks abundant with various species of flora and fauna. Among the many wildlife sanctuaries of Karnataka, you can choose the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary for various reasons. Spread over an area of 834.16 sq.km, Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary is neighbor to Goa’s Mahaveer sanctuary and is the second largest wildlife sanctuary in Karnataka.

Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary offers you the opportunity to explore the unspoilt wilderness with a captivating landscape. You will be spellbound as you make your way in the sanctuary, enjoying the undulating steep slopes of the hills, the picturesque deep ravines and the deciduous and semi evergreen forests. Spotting animals involves an element of luck even though the sanctuary abounds with panthers, tigers, gaurs, wild dogs, elephants, civet cats, bison, jackals, langurs, mouse deer, sloth bear and giant flying squirrels.

Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary is house to many avian species and reptiles. Birds like magpie robin, crested serpent eagle and golden backed woodpecker are found here. The sanctuary offers you the opportunity to enjoy a ride in a coracle down the Kali River. As you drift down the river you can revel in the sight of hornbills returning to their nests in the tall trees on the river banks, catch the darters drying their plumes and enjoy the sight of egrets flying at the backdrop of the orange sky.

Furnished tents, cottages with attached baths and dormitories are part of Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary’s excellent accommodation. A well stacked library, arrangements for video screening, jungle safaris nature walks, bird watching, crocodile sighting trips, fishing, coracle boat rides and trekking in the jungles are the various facilities offered by the sanctuary. The syntheri rocks, a cluster of monolithic granite structure with the Kaneri flowing by its side offers a spectacular view amidst the thick forest