Bandipur Tiger Reserve: safari timings, fees and how to book

The reserve's official website, bandipurtr.in, lists 6:30 am to 9:00 am and 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm every day. These are the hours in the card above, checked on 4 September 2026. Inside the reserve you see the forest from a safari vehicle; the official site also mentions guided nature walks on the periphery.

The booking terms add three things worth knowing:

• Report at the entry gate 30 minutes before your slot. Late arrivals are not taken and not refunded.
• Safari timings can change with the season and Forest Department orders.
• A safari can be cancelled at short notice for weather, wildlife management or safety; in that case you get a refund or a new slot.

According to the reserve's director, quoted in the press in July 2026, safaris have been lengthened from about 90 minutes to nearly three hours, covering 30–35 km instead of 15–20 km.

The safari ticket is effectively your entry: the official site sells safaris and cottages, and its public pages show no separate entry fee and no fare table. The fares below therefore come from press reports (July 2026) of the revision ordered by the Karnataka Forest Department, which took effect on 1 September 2026 (press, 4 September 2026). Press reports differ on the old jeep fare, so only the new one is given. Extra charges apply for camera lenses longer than 200 mm (₹1,500 plus 18% GST, per Asianet), and parking fees were revised too.

Book only through the official website, bandipurtr.in. The reserve moved there from bandipurtigerreserve.org and warns about look-alike sites; official emails come only from @bandipurtr.in.

From the reserve's own terms and rules:

Bandipur is about 80 km south of Mysore on the road to Ooty, roughly two hours' drive. Safaris start from the reception on the highway (the reserve's address is NH 67, Bandipur, the old number of today's NH-181).

That puts the morning slot out of comfortable range of a same-day start from Mysore. Either leave very early or stay overnight; the reserve rents its own forest cottages through the same website.

Night traffic ban. The two highways through the reserve, NH-181 (Mysore–Ooty) and NH-766 (Kollegal–Kozhikode), are closed to traffic from 9 pm to 6 am. The ban was first imposed in 2009 and has stood on a Karnataka High Court order since March 2010; ambulances and emergency vehicles, plus two authorised night buses, are exempt. Plan to cross the forest in daylight.

Bandipur covers 1,456 sq km in Chamarajanagar district: dry and moist deciduous and scrub forest between 680 and 1,454 m, joined to Mudumalai, Nagarhole, Wayanad and Sathyamangalam in one of the largest continuous habitats for tigers and Asian elephants. The Maharaja of Mysore made it the Venugopala Wildlife Park in 1931, and it became a Project Tiger reserve in 1973, per the official site (the card above gives "1973–74").

On a safari, elephants, gaur, chital and peafowl are near-certain. Leopards and tigers are a matter of luck and should not be promised. The official site recommends October to May, with the peak from December to March; the hot, dry season runs from March until the monsoon arrives in June. Safari timings may shift with the seasons.