India¡¯s Largest Leopard Safari To Come Up In Bengaluru's Bannerghatta Biological Park

The Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) on the outskirts of Karnataka's capital Bengaluru will soon have the biggest leopard safari in India.

Last week, Karnataka Minister for Forest, Environment, and Ecology, Eshwar Khandre had directed the forest department and zoo management officials to start the works of the leopard safari, which has been in the pipeline for a long time.

BCCL

Safari will have 20 leopards

For the safari, the BBP has carved out 20 hectares, where the leopards will be housed within an enclosure fenced with high-rise mesh and trees.

It has the capacity to hold 20 leopards and currently, there are just 12 of them.

All the leopards are less than a year old and were rescued from the forest and hand-reared by humans.

Safari to open to public soon

Authorities are hoping to open the safari soon, but before it is opened to the public, they said that training and co-existence of leopards should be ensured.

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Officials indicated that leopard safari could be open to the public by as early as April, but added that it could be delayed until May if the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls comes into force.

Lion, tiger safari in Bannerghatta

Bannerghatta already has a tiger safari with 33 big cats, including 7 white tigers, and a lion safari with 19 lions housed in a 5-hectare area.

The Bannerghatta National Park is estimated to have a total of 70 leopards in the wild.

BCCL

The national park which is spread across 260.51 sq km, just about 22 km south of Bengaluru has over 50 animals and a hundred bird species.

A 2019 study had counted some 40 leopards there, making it the highest density of the species in the wild, anywhere in the world.

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