BR Hills, Karnataka

BR Hills, Karnataka

BR Hills stands for Biligiriranga Hills. It is a must visit place for all those who love to spend time with nature, flora and fauna. It provides a panorama of Hills and dense forest in that region of Karnataka. It is very popular for the tribal population and it dates back many hundreds years of tribal civilization. It is a protected reserve by forest department and there quite a few restrictions, such as the check post at the beginning of the hills operates only between 6am to 6pm and trekking into the certain hills is prohibited. 

These are the hills spanning over the area of 540SqKms. It is indeed a huge piece of earth that is covered with forest and wild life. The sightings in the jungle are indeed wild, such as wild elephants, tigers, cheetahs, leopards and variety of bird species. 

View from the BR Temple

Another view from BR Temple

Another view from BR Temple Hill

View from BR Temple Hill

Flora

Travel:

1) Take the Kanakapura Road from Bangalore. The best way to reach the Kanakapura Road is from the NICE road. Get on to the nice road from any of the junctions such as, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta road etc...

2) Travel on the Kanakapura road till you will reach the Malavalli – Kollegal State Highway. At this point, take a left to head towards Kollegal and keep driving on this road until you get to Kollegal town ( there are boards for directions).
3) Once you enter Kollegal, you will hit a T junction. Take left and the road curves to the right, take the right. On this road you will find a club  HP bunk on to your right hand side – take a right at the bunk.  About 1 Km from this right turn, you will see Kollegal bus stand to your right. After the bus stand take a left and keep driving on the same road and this eventually leads to the B R Hills check post via Yelandur town.


Route to Gorukana, the most popular resort. 
From B R hills check post Gorukana is about 12 KMS. At the 12th km, you will start to see small houses. Look out for a Gorukana board and take a right at the board. You will reach the gorukana.

Places to visit: 

Biligiriranga Temple: 

It is indeed an attraction in this place as it boasts itself of the location, just right on top of the hills, yes it is on top of the hill and provides a beautiful, mesmerizing view of the complete green landscape with dense forest around this place.

Biligiriranga Temple

Biligiriranga Temple

Temple Coverage

Forest Trek

This is a morning 7am walk into the forest and bit of trekking is also involved. The walk will also cut through many tribal locations, it is terrifying to know that the tribals live in the forest which is so dense and dark during the evenings and nights. Following are the pics of the trekking, 

A large open space for the animals to feel the Sun

The Animals Water quenching place...

Animals trail to the water body.

Animals resting place near a water body (created by them)

The parasitic tree below is a very peculiar one. It appears like some sort of creature has attacked it. Its true that this creature sort of roots eat the tree in full in few years and the tree sees its untimely death.

The Parasitic Tree

A bridge by Tribal to cross a stream in the forest.

Forest Drive:

A nice dark tar road to K.Gudi is a trail deep inside the forest. This drive offers a beautiful view of flora and fauna in this region. The road itself offers excitement and challenges as it cuts through the dense forest and also narrow enough to keep just 2 vehicles drive through without brushing through. One can drive a 20kms towards K.Gudi and take a round about turn and return back the BR Hills.

Stay:
Gorukana, the most popular and unique styled resort. Gorukana is very special due to its services,find more details @ http://www.gorukana.org
Gorukana is also unique due to its Tribal people association with the resort. The Tribals perform dance and some plays for the inmates of the resort. The tribals are striving hard to keep their culture alive with many of their folk songs and dances. This is the most amazing experience for the people who stay in the resort. It is organized in the evening with a campfire which is followed by the dinner. 

Tribal Dance

Tribal Dance

Route to Gorukana, from B R hills check post is about 12 KMS. At the 12th km , you will start to see small houses. Look out for a Gorukana board and take a right at the board. A few meters is a mud road with a steep downwards, but safe enough for any car to drive. 
Gorukana is very green with many tall trees and natural grass beds. A coffee on a hammock near the beautiful cottages is a an experience ineffable. It also offers couple of tree houses which is a concept that makes you live on an elevation from the ground into the tree among the branches.

Cottages

The Entrance to Gorukana

Each Cottage has a Identity - Kannada Names of Animals

Sufficient Parking place right behind the cottage

Some Adventure...

Best Time to Visit:

If one like winters... Oct - Feb
Otherwise - June to August