Kanha National Park

Kanha Tiger Reserve, also called Kanha National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh, state in the heart of India. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two sanctuaries, Hallon and Banjar, of 250 and 300 km2 respectively. Kanha National Park was created on 1 June 1955 and in 1973 was made the Kanha Tiger Reserve. Today it stretches over an area of 940 km2 in the two districts Mandla and Balaghat. Together with a surrounding buffer zone of 1,067 km2 and the neighbouring 110 km2 Phen Sanctuary it forms the Kanha Tiger Reserve. This makes it the largest National Park in Central India. Kanha Tiger Reserve was ranked among the top 10 Famous Places for Tourists. The park has a significant population of the Royal Bengal tiger, Indian leopards, the sloth bear, barasingha and Indian wild dog. The forest depicted in the famous novel by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book is based on jungles including this reserve. It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, "Bhoorsingh the Barasingha". Kanha is situated in both the districts, It is around 30 km far from Mandla and 80 km far from Balaghat. Kanha Tiger Reserve has species of tigers, leopards, wild dogs, wild cats, foxes and jackals. Among the deer species, swamp deer (Cervus duavcelli branderi) or hard-ground barasingha is the pride of the place, as it is the only subspecies of swamp deer in India, except the great swamp deer of Sundarbans. The animal is adapted to hard ground unlike swamp deer of the north, which live in marshy swamps. The reserve has been instrumental in rescuing the swamp deer from extinction. Indian gaur (Bos guarus), belonging to the ox genus, are found in Kanha, but seen mostly as winter ends. In summer, gaur inhabit meadows and waterholes in the park. Other commonly seen animals in the park include the spotted deer, sambar, barking deer, and the four-horned antelope. The latter can be seen at Bamni Dadar climb. Recently, mouse deer have also been discovered in the tiger reserve. Blackbuck have inexplicably become very rare. They vanished completely, but have been reintroduced recently inside a fenced area in the park. Nilgai can still be seen near the Sarahi Gate, while the Indian wolf once commonly seen at Mocha is a rare sight now. Striped hyena and sloth bear are seen occasionally. Langurs and wild boars are common, but the pugnacious rhesus macaque is seen less often. Nocturnal animals like fox, hyena, jungle cat, civets, porcupine, ratel or honey badger, and hares can be seen outside the park confines. The reserve brings around 300 species of birds and the most commonly seen birds are the black ibis, bee-eaters, cattle egret, blossom-headed parakeets, pond herons, drongos, common teal, crested serpent eagle, grey hornbill, Indian roller, lesser adjutant, little grebes, lesser whistling teal, minivets, Malabar pied hornbill, woodpeckers, pigeon, paradise flycatchers, mynas, Indian peafowl, red junglefowl, red-wattled lapwing, steppe eagle, Tickell's blue flycatcher, white-eyed buzzard, white-breasted kingfisher, white-browed fantail, wood shrikes, and warblers, vultures among many more. Reptiles such as Indian pythons, Indian cobras, krait, rat snakes, vipers, keelbacks, and grass snakes are nocturnal animals, so rarely are seen. Many species of turtles and amphibians are found in or near the water bodies.