Every evening at nine o’clock, the highway out of Sulthan Bathery toward Mysuru stops working. Gates close at the forest checkposts where NH 766 enters the Bandipur tiger reserve, and until six the next morning nothing goes through — for two-wheelers the closure starts around six in the evening. The ban has been in force since 2009, it has survived everything Kerala’s politics could throw at it, and if you are basing yourself in Bathery for the Karnataka side it is the one rule you plan the day around.
Where the ban came from
The order is Karnataka’s, and it began as a wildlife casualty count. Studies and court filings recorded more than 215 wild animals run over on this stretch between 2004 and 2007 — the road bisects the reserve, and the animals move at night. On 3 June 2009 the forest authorities of Chamarajanagar district prohibited night traffic on what was then NH 212 between Gundlupet and Sulthan Bathery, and the Karnataka High Court later backed the restriction. Kerala has been trying to reopen the road ever since: Wayanad’s economy points down this highway toward Mysuru and Bengaluru, and the state government has argued in court that the closure strangles it.
The argument peaked in 2019. An indefinite hunger strike began at the Wayanad end that September, with thousands joining solidarity marches before it was called off; the same year the Supreme Court upheld the ban, and an expert committee told the court something worth reading twice — that the reserve’s tigers, elephants and gaur had behaviourally adjusted to the quiet nights, and that undoing the restriction would undo a conservation gain. Proposals for elevated corridors and alternative alignments have circulated since; as of 2026 the ban stands, nine to six, every night.
What a traveller actually does
Planning around the closure, from Sulthan Bathery
| Daytime crossings | The road is open and ordinary from 6 am to 9 pm — Mysuru is a measured 114 km, Bengaluru 254, and daytime buses run normally |
| Night arrivals from Bengaluru | Time the Bandipur stretch for after 6 am, or expect to wait at the gate — late buses sit out the closure on the Karnataka side |
| The workaround that stays open | The Mananthavady–Kutta road through Kodagu (on to Gonikoppal and Hunsur) has no night ban — it is the longer, winding alternative the trucks and late taxis use |
| Two-wheelers | The closure starts earlier — around 6 pm — so bikes crossing to Gundlupet need an afternoon start |
| Inside the open hours | This is still elephant country: the Muthanga stretch this side of the border has the same animals and no gates — do not stop, do not feed, keep moving |
It is worth saying plainly that the ban is not a nuisance imposed on Wayanad from outside — or not only that. The same forest continuity that closes the road at night is what fills the Muthanga safari jeeps at dawn, fourteen kilometres from the Bathery bus stand. The elephants that make the sanctuary worth visiting are the elephants the gates protect. A traveller who plans one day around the safari and the same evening around the closure has understood east Wayanad better than most of the litigation has.
- NH 766 through Bandipur: closed 9 pm–6 am nightly, from ~6 pm for two-wheelers, since 2009
- Mananthavady–Kutta–Gonikoppal stays open all night — the standing workaround toward Mysuru
- Check current gate timings before a late Karnataka leg; the order is Karnataka’s and enforcement is at the checkposts