Nandi Hills, India - Tourism

Tourism

The hills are now a popular tourist spot during summer. The state horticulture department maintains a garden for the tourists. The pressure of tourists on the environment here is great with a considerable problem of litter, noise and physical disturbance. Skanda giri is a nearby tourist place.

1. Tipu's Drop - the famous place from where Tippu Sultan threw his condemned prisoners to death
2. Tipu's Summer Palace and Fort - During the Ganga period, the Chikkaballapur chieftains built a fort. Tippu strengthened it further and also build a rest house. This used to be Tippus summer bungalow. It is not open to the general public.
3. Horse Way - A stone doorway in the fort on the North-eastern side, is believed to have been the horse way for helping soldiers to climb the wall on horse back.
4. Secret Escape Route - A secret passage on the west, is believed to have helped the Kings to escape during unforeseen attacks.
5. Temples - there are temples dedicated to Sri Bhoga Narasimha, Sri Ugra Narasimha and Sri Yoga Narasimha and you can see beautiful old temples.
6. Gavi Veerbhadra Swamy temple: on top of the hill, on the way to the Sultanpet, from Tippus palace, natural formation of huge boulders has been transformed into a magnificent temple.
7. Children's Playground - The Horticulture department maintains a lovely garden for children to play games like the slides, merry-go-round, swings etc.
8. Nehru Nilaya - where Jawaharlal Nehru used to stay, now a guest house of the horticulture department of India.
9. Gandhi House, where the Mahatma himself stayed, is under the management of DPAR (Protocol) Government of Karnataka and is reserved for the stay of important dignitaries.
10. The Horticulture Department runs a vegetarian restaurant and the Karnataka Tourism Department runs a vegetarian / non-vegetarian restaurant "MAYURA".
11. Rivers - the rivers Pennar, Palar and Arkavati originate from these hills. Most of the sources have dried up. Amruth Sarovar is a beautiful water lake that brims with lucid water all the year round.
12. Brahmashram - it is said that Sage Ramakrishna meditated here. Its a cool cave. All Munis in the Ashram used to sit and Smoke Up together on the top of the hill beforing starting off their day and this tradition is followed by today's youngsters.
13. Muddenahalli-Kanivenarayanapura - the home town of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the legendary architect of modern Karnataka. Along with Kanivenarayanapura, it is the site of the upcoming Sri Sathya Sai Baba University and College of Medicine, 600 crore Visvesvaraya Institute of Advanced Technology, and a 70 crore "Silk City".
14. Paragliding - Nandi Hills is one of the unique place in Karnataka which offers paragliding activity.
15. Cycling/biking - Nandi Hills is cyclists paradise, a good ~400 meters of altitude gain in ~7 km of ride, The bikers/cyclists from Bangalore storm there on weekends and holidays. It's a very good hill training spot for them.

Apart from these, there are other interesting places like Anjaneya temple, Nellikayi Basavanna, Antaragange, Baananthi Bande, Bhoga Nandeeshwara temple etc.