DANDELI

DANDELI
A civilised wildlife reserve
By Sunaad Raghuram

Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary is home to that most mysterious of the big cats in the tropics , the Black Panther. Official records say that eight of them exist here and many have indeed seen them. Arboreal creatures , from the Flying Squirrel, the Flying Snake and the Flying Lizard , also call Dandeli home, and so do a variety of hornbills. Not to forget van manav (jungle man), or the slender loris, that makes a sure shot appearance soon after sunset amidst the branches of the moist deciduous trees in the nearly 450 sq km area of Dandeli, reputedly the oldest declared game reserve in the country.

Visit Dandeli to experience the great wilderness, but not in the hope of seeing big game , elephants, gaur, sambhar or chital. They all live here for sure, but definitely not in such large numbers for them to be spotted unfailingly like in most other forests of South India.