Biligiri Rangana Betta ( BR Hills)

Biligiri Rangaiah, neene helaiah

Ranganayakiya chandulli chaluvaiah…

( Oh! Lord of the Biligiri hills, you tell me , Oh handsome charmer of Goddess Ranganayaki)....

This is a famous song from the movie “ sharapanjara” released in the mid 70’s , directed by non other than the great director Puttana Kanagal and enacted by the Queen of kannada movies of the 70’s Kalpana

Well, I used to hear this song many a times and see the beauty of BR hills in the Eastman colour movie…and it looked beautiful on screen and when I visited this place for the first time last week, I knew why the song was made that way… coz this place deserves those very words

It was a three day trip to BR hills, pouring weather, ,managed to get a govt guest house on a hill top, and what more it was just living in heaven, walk in the clouds…

This place is absolutely non commercialized and therefore the beauty is still intact.
Jungle lodges is the only resort as such which is located in K Gudi, 20kms from where we stayed on BR hills and apart from that it is only the various govt guest houses such as PWD, Forest Officer’s guest house,. Tribals are the population around and growing medicinal plants is one key occupation in this place. There is the famous biligiri Ranganatha Swamy temple which is the peak point of this place and named after him. An ancient temple not very big, but well placed on the hillock.
We were not able to spot animals, coz it was just pouring due to the cyclone effect in the BAY… but that weather made it more memorable of that place.

We spotted so many birds, few of which I don’t even know their names. An absolute visual treat.

Hey and after all this, while coming down the hill, we had Mr Rahul Gandhi climb up the hill. What security ,,,,, 8 cars and his SUV in the middle zooming up the hill. We also saw his helicopter later in a school premise in Kollegal...

Some tips
How to reach there - We took the route via maddur- kollegal- yelladur and BR Hills

This was just about 188 kms from my place in rajajinagar. The roads are not great, but you can manage.

If you are lucky , it is best to call the Aranya bhavan in chamarajanagar and see if rooms are available. The contact number is 08226222059.

below is the link where i have loaded some snaps.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21876589@N02/