Forest permits
Most of the good walking around Chikkamagaluru is inside reserved forest, a national park or a wildlife sanctuary. That land belongs to the Karnataka Forest Department, and you need their permission to be on it.
You cannot trek the approved routes alone
As of 2026 a certified nature guide is compulsory on every approved route, at one guide per ten trekkers. This is a Forest Department rule, not ours — turning up without one means turning back.
Find a certified guideWhat needs a permit
- Trek routes inside reserved forest — Kudremukh, Nethravathi, Kurinjal, Narasimha Parvatha, Bandaje and Ettina Bhuja among them.
- Kudremukh National Park and the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, including the jeep safari from the Muthodi range.
- Any route where a range office has set an entry cap for the season.
Walking on an estate you are staying at, or up to a viewpoint reached by public road, generally does not. If you are unsure, your host or guide will know — they deal with the local range office all year.
Booking one
Karnataka issues forest trek permits online, through the Forest Department's own Aranya Vihaara portal. It is in English and Kannada.
aranyavihaara.karnataka.gov.in- Register once with a mobile number and email address.
- Book at least a day ahead, and no more than fifteen days ahead.
- Have every trekker’s details ready — full name, age, gender, mobile number, and a government photo ID with its number. Voter ID, driving licence, PAN, passport or ration card.
- Carry the same ID you booked with. It is checked at the gate.
What this page will not tell you
Fees, gate opening times and daily entry caps. They are set at the range office and change with the season, the weather and the fire risk — and a figure printed here and wrong is worse than no figure at all, because you would have driven four hours on it.
The portal above carries the current numbers. So does whoever is guiding you.
If you book a guide through MaladTrip
Guides who run permit routes arrange the permit as part of the trek, and their listing says what is included. Ask before you book if it is not clear — it is the single most common thing people assume either way.
MaladTrip does not issue permits and cannot get you in without one. Forest Department certification on a guide's profile is a badge our team verifies against their documents; it is never self-assigned.