Nagarhole National Park

Where Is Nagarhole, and What Was It Before?

• Nagarhole National Park sits in Kodagu and Mysore districts, Karnataka.
• It is also called Rajiv Gandhi National Park. Several Indian parks carry this same dual naming pattern: one local name, one formal name.
• Before it became a sanctuary, this land was the Wodeyar dynasty’s private hunting reserve.
• The park’s name comes from Kannada: “nagara” means snake, “hole” means stream, for its network of small streams.

Four Stages of Growth

• 1955: the former royal hunting reserve becomes a Wildlife Sanctuary.
• 1983: the sanctuary is upgraded to a National Park.
• 2003: Nagarhole is declared India’s 37th Tiger Reserve. Its area grows to 643.39 sq km.
• 2012: the reserve expands again, to its current 847.98 sq km.

How Many Tigers, and Why So Many?

• The 2022 tiger census recorded 141 tigers inside the reserve. That is India’s third-highest count, after Corbett and Bandipur.
• This strong number ties closely to Nagarhole’s genuinely abundant chital and sambar deer, the tiger’s main prey here.
• Bandipur National Park lies just north-west, separated from Nagarhole only by the Kabini reservoir.
• Wildlife regularly crosses the reservoir between the two parks, so the pair effectively function as one connected landscape.
• The Kabini reservoir’s edge has become one of South India’s best-known wildlife-viewing spots. It’s especially popular in the dry season, when animals gather along its shrinking shoreline.

What Grows Here, and What Lives in It?

• Its main water sources are the Kabini River, the Lakshmantirtha River, and the Kabini reservoir.
• Nagarhole ranges across the Western Ghats foothills, along the Brahmagiri hills, and gets about 1,440 mm of rain a year, mostly from the southwest monsoon.
• Its forest: mostly dry deciduous, with teak, crocodile bark, and Indian kino trees.
• Its big predators: Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, dhole, and sloth bear.
• Other wildlife: gaur, chital, sambar, marsh crocodiles in the reservoir, and a wide range of resident and migratory birds.
• Nagarhole belongs to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, alongside Bandipur, Mudumalai, and Wayanad. This was India’s first biosphere reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme, designated in 1986.

Why Isn’t Nagarhole Listed on Its Own?

Nagarhole is not yet its own UNESCO World Heritage Site. Several major Indian reserves wait this way, as part of larger multi-site nominations rather than standing alone. Nagarhole is part of the Western Ghats Nilgiri Sub-Cluster, a 6,000 sq km nomination still under UNESCO review. Such multi-site nominations usually take years to assess, and Nagarhole’s own wait has already stretched across several review cycles without a final ruling.

How Does Nagarhole Fit the World’s Largest Wild Elephant Population?

• Nagarhole held Karnataka’s second-highest elephant population in the 2023 count, 831 elephants, behind Bandipur’s 1,116.
• It also forms a key link in the elephant corridors connecting nearby reserves. Elephants move seasonally between parks here, following water and food across the wider landscape each year.
• Nagarhole completes a five-park contiguous landscape with Bandipur, Mudumalai, Wayanad, and Sathyamangalam. Conservationists call this combined area the Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats elephant landscape.
• Together, these five parks hold the world’s largest wild Asian elephant population.
• Rising infrastructure pressure and mining proposals near Nagarhole and Bandipur have raised concerns about the parks nearing ecological saturation. Conservationists and local communities remain divided over how much more tourism infrastructure this landscape can absorb.

What Happened With Nagarhole’s Safaris in 2026?

Safaris at Nagarhole and Bandipur had been halted since 7 November 2025, after a series of fatal tiger attacks, including a farmer killed in Mysuru district. Karnataka began a phased resumption on 19 February 2026, reopening safaris at 50% capacity and 4 hours a day. (Source: Deccan Herald) On 27 June 2026, Karnataka fully reopened jungle safaris at both reserves, based on a scientifically assessed carrying capacity. (Source: The Hans India, June 27, 2026)