Tourist places in and around Dandeli

The hornbills

The rather strange thing about Dandeli is the huge presence of colourful hornbills, those birds that seem to have come straight out of a mythical locale, with beaks that look like medieval swords. You can see literally hundreds of them, comprising both the Great Indian Hornbill and the Malabar Pied Hornbill, towards early morning and evening, raucously roosting in the branches of the Indian birch. They also favour the bamboo clusters along the banks of the Kali in the vicinity of the small town of Dandeli. The hornbill is an extremely rare bird, found only in certain stretches of the Western Ghats. you will always come across several of them in the deeper recesses of the forests on the ghats, but to be able to spot one you did have to trek many a mile. But in Dandeli you see them in hordes, and right amidst human civilisation. So much so that a lady herpetologist that I met there labelled them the crows of Dandeli! Bizarre, but true.

Crocodile watching

Imagine going down river in a coracle and then, even before you have realised it, being surrounded by over a hundred and fifty crocodiles! That's exactly what will happen to you if you went down the Kali to a place just outside the precincts of Dandeli town! The story of the crocodiles can be traced to the setting up of the West Coast Paper Mill in the 1950s, which unfortunately releases pulp waste into the waters of the Kali. The crocodiles, over the years, have begun to enjoy eating the waste! They congregate in unusually large numbers and are almost completely unaffected by human activity.

White-water rafting

If there is adventure inside you and the will to give it a shot, then hop onto a rubber dinghy and attempt to tame the rapids on the Kali. Cascade down the swirling waters and feel your heart thump. Or get into a coracle and gently sail over the waters as you notice a cormorant drying itself on a rock with its black wings spread wide. If you hear a splash, safely conclude that a crocodile has slipped into the waters, a little ahead of you.