Mysore-Ooty Road or ''Mysore-Udhagamandalam Road'' is a tourist trail of South India starting from

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

in Karnataka state and ending in Udhagamandalam in Nilgiri district of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

state,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Both routes pass through

Bandipur National park Bandipur National Park is a national park covering in Chamarajnagar district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It was established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1973. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986. Histor ...

in Gundlupet, Karnataka and

Mudumalai National Park Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu in southern India. It covers at an elevation range of in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala. A part of this a ...

in Tamil Nadu. Bandipur

At the crossing there are statues of a tiger, a leopard, a gaur, a deer and an elephant.

Distance

* Small vehicles take a 124 km route by Mysore-Theppakkadu-Masinagudi-Kallati-Ooty Road. * Buses and trucks take a longer route of 158 km route by Mysore-Theppakkadu-Gudalur-Pykara-Ooty Road. Ooty is well connected by roads. It is 260 km (172 mi) from Bangalore, from Chennai (via Salem, Erode, and Coimbatore), from Coimbatore and from Mysore. Ooty is situated on NH 181 and is connected by road via the five main accepted

Nilgiri Ghat Roads Many Ghat Roads can be found in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, Southern India. Nearly all of the district is located in the Nilgiri Hills, part of the Western Ghats mountains. This area borders the states of Karnataka and Kerala. The hills ...

. Bus services operated by

TNSTC Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ltd. - (TNSTC) is a government owned public transport bus operator in Tamil Nadu, India. It operates Intercity bus services to cities within Tamil Nadu, and from Tamil Nadu to its neighbouring states. It al ...

and KSRTC connect major towns in the state and nearby towns in the district such as

Coonoor Coonoor (), is a taluk and a municipal town of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. As of 2011, the town had a population of 45,494. The town sits at the south-east corner of the Nilgiri plateau, and at the head of the Coonoo ...

Kotagiri Kotagiri is a hill station and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the India, Indian state, Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiri hills have been the traditional home of the "Kota" tribes. The name 'Kota-giri' itself means 'mountains of the kotas'. ...

, and Gudalur, Mysore and Gundlupet.

Bandipur National Park

Bandipur National Park Bandipur National Park is a national park covering in Chamarajnagar district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It was established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1973. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986. Histor ...

() established in 1974 as a tiger reserve under

Project Tiger Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered tiger. The project was initiated in 1973 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India. As of March 2025, there ...

, is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

located in the south Indian state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. It was once a private hunting reserve for the

Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

of the

Kingdom of Mysore The Kingdom of Mysore was a geopolitical realm in southern India founded in around 1399 in the vicinity of the modern-day city of Mysore and prevailed until 1950. The territorial boundaries and the form of government transmuted substantially ...

but has now been upgraded to Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Bandipur is known for its wildlife and has many types of

biomes A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community (ecology), community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Art ...

, but

dry deciduous forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

is dominant. The park spans an area of , protecting several species of India's endangered wildlife. Together with the adjoining

Nagarhole National Park Nagarahole National Park is a national park located in Kodagu district and Mysore district in Karnataka, India. This park was declared the 37th Tiger Reserve of India in 1999. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Western Ghats ...

(),

() and

Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in Wayanad, Kerala, India with an extent of and four hill ranges namely Sulthan Bathery, Muthanga, Kurichiat and Tholpetty. A variety of large wild animals such as gaur, Indian elephant, deer ...

(), it is part of the

Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve in the Nilgiri Mountains of the Western Ghats in South India. It is the largest protected forest area in India, spreading across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. It includes the protected ...

totaling making it the largest protected area in southern India and largest habitate of wild elephants in south Asia. Bandipur is located in Gundlupet

taluq A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ce ...

Chamarajanagar district Chamarajanagar or Chamarajanagara is the southernmost district in the state of Karnataka, India. It was carved out of the original larger Mysore District in 1998. Chamarajanagar town is the headquarters of this district. It is the third leas ...

. It is about from the city of

on the route to a major tourist destination of

Ooty Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), Anglicisation, anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north ...

. As a result, Bandipur sees a lot of tourist traffic and there are many wildlife fatalities caused by speeding vehicles that are reported each year. There is a ban on traffic from 9 pm to 6 am of dusk to dawn to help bring down the death rate of wildlife.

Mudumalai National Park

The

and Wildlife Sanctuary (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

:முதுமலை தேசிய பூங்கா மற்றும் விலங்குகள் சரணாலயம்) also a declared

tiger reserve Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered tiger. The project was initiated in 1973 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India. As of March 2025, there ...

, lies on the northwestern side of the Nilgiri Hills (Blue Mountains), in Nilgiri District, about north-west of Coimbatore city in

Kongu Nadu Kongu Nadu, also known as Kongu Mandalam, is the geographical region comprising the western and north-western part of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu and in some instances, parts of southeastern Karnataka a ...

region of

. It shares its boundaries with the states of

and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. The sanctuary is divided into five ranges – Masinagudi, Thepakadu, Mudumalai, Kargudi and Nellakota. The protected area is home to several

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

and vulnerable species including

Indian elephant The Indian elephant (''Elephas maximus indicus'') is one of three extant recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, native to mainland Asia. The species is smaller than the African elephant species with a convex back and the highest body po ...

Bengal tiger The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies and the nominate tiger subspecies. It ranks among the largest wild cats alive today. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late ...

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...

and

Indian leopard The Indian leopard (''Panthera pardus fusca'') is a subspecies of the leopard (''P. pardus''). It is widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. It is threatened by illegal trade of skins and body parts, and persecution due to human-leopard ...

. There are at least 266 species of birds in the sanctuary, including

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

Indian white-rumped vulture The white-rumped vulture (''Gyps bengalensis'') is an Old World vulture native to South and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000, as the population severely declined. White-rumped vultures di ...

and

long-billed vulture The Indian vulture or long-billed vulture (''Gyps indicus'') is a bird of prey native to the Indian subcontinent. It is an Old World vulture belonging to the family of Accipitridae. It is a medium-sized vulture with a small, semi-bald head with li ...

The Western Ghats Nilgiri Sub-Cluster of , including all of Mudumalai National Park, is under consideration by the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee is a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Her ...

for selection as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

.UNESCO, World Heritage sites, Tentative lists, Western Ghats sub cluster, Ooty. retrieved 20 April 200
World Heritage sites, Tentative lists
/ref>

The driving experience

Mysore to Nanjangud

The road in this sector is two track with a toll booth in the middle. The major tourist attraction is the S.G.S.Ashram with an aviary, library and museum inside. There are good restaurants like Rhythm.n.Hues, The Evergreen, the Grand View and Vishnu Cafe before reaching the airport. Flights are available from Mysoe Airport to Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa and Kochi. Before airport there is a scenic place with a lake and bend in the road. After Kadakola town, there are two Punjabi dhabha restaurants offering private outdoor huts. There is a riverside temple at Sujathapuram and also India's oldest railway bridge is located here. Cafe Coffee Day has an outlet here. Royal Hotel provides Kerala style food. Nanjangud town has many lodges and restaurants.

Nanjangud to Gundlupet

This stretch also has two way road without any toll. There are some beautiful churches and temples on this way. Many Kerala restaurants dot either side of the road. There is a drive-in-cafe 15 km from Nanjangud. There is an outlet of Cafe Coffee Day another ten kilometer forward.

Gundlupet to Gudalur

North NH 181 Bandipur Karnataka Aug24 A7CR 02108

This is a 2-lane road passing through two national parks. You can find humps every 300 meters for safety of the animals. Night traffic is banned and animals may be sighted during daytime.

Gudalur to Ooty

This is a very scenic uphill route but traffic blocks are very common near the Frog Hill viewpoint. They last for one or two hours. The two sides of the road are very scenic with shola forests, undulating hills and lakes.

Image gallery

File:Kakkanallah checkpost.Bandipur.jpg, Kakkanallah Checkpost File:Gundalpet.Mel Kamanahalli.jpg, Melkamanahalli village File:Theppakkadu Junction.36 km to Ooty.jpg, Theppakkadu Junction File:Gudalur Busstand junction.2017.jpg, Gudalur Bus Stand Junction

References

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