Wild, Wild Bandipur

At The Serai Bandipur, safaris and nature walks apart, elegant peacocks keep you company and dainty flower peckers compose the jungle’s score

- Pooja Naik

Just by sinking my feet into freshly rained-on grass in the middle of a jungle, as opposed to battling to breathe, inside a clammy Mumbai metro compartment, my evening has turned extraordinary. When I find out that a guided nature walk through Bandipur is up next, my energy levels spike as if I've downed several Red Bulls. I am standing on the pruned lawns of The Serai Bandipur in Karnataka; a forest lodge sprawled over 36 acres in the Western Ghats and the gorgeous Nilgiris. 36 acres! How big is that big? The size of a football field? A mall? Perhaps, two? Distant calls from a troupe of pale-billed flower peckers flitting somewhere outside the property’s fenced gates interrupt my thoughts. Just then, naturalist Sudesan Kuttappan chimes in with a warm, high-pitched “Hello. Good evening ji.”

The staff affectionately calls him Mowgli, a nickname that has stayed even after Kuttappan’s long locks haven’t. “Ever wondered what a cobra bite looks like?” he quizzes me, rolling up his khaki sleeves to reveal an inch-long scar. I acknowledge his been-there-done-that persona with an awkward smile. Soon we leave the lodge to explore 18 acres of attached forest land.