Kanha: See the wild side of Nature

A diversity of flora and fauna, and good administrative protection has given it the well-deserved tag of one of the finest and best administered national parks in Asia.

Kanha’s sal and bamboo forests, rolling grasslands and meandering streams stretch over 940 sq km in natural splendour. Kanha National Park forms the core of the Kanha Tiger Reserve created in 1974 under Project Tiger. The park is the only habitat of the rare hardground

barasingha (Cervus Duvaceli Branderi). Depletion of the tiger population in the years that followed led to the area being made an absolute sanctuary in 1952. By a special statute in 1955, Kanha National Park came into being. Since then, a series of stringent conservation programmes for the protection of the park’s flora and fauna has given Kanha a reputation for being one of the finest and best-administered national parks in Asia.

What to see

The best areas are the meadows around Kanha, where blackbuck, chital and barasingha can be seen throughout the day.

Bamni Dadar: Known as Sunset Point, this is one of the most beautiful areas of the park, from where a spectacular sunset can be watched. The dense luxuriance of Kanha’s forests can best be seen from here. Animals that can be sighted around this point are typical of the mixed forest zone, sambar, barking deer, gaur and the fourhorned antelope. Mammalian Species: Kanha has some 22 species of mammals. Those most easily spotted are the striped palm squirrel, com- mon langur, jackal, wild pig, chital or spotted deer, barasingha or swamp deer, and blackbuck.

Less commonly-seen

species: Tiger, Indian hare, dhole or Indian wild dog, barking deer and Indian bison or gaur. Patient watching should reward the visitor with a sight of Indian fox, sloth bear, striped hyena, jungle cat, leopard, mouse deer, chausingha or four horned antelope, nilgai, ratel and porcupine. Very rarely-seen species: Wolves, which live in the far east of the park, chinkara to be found outside the park’s northern boundary, Indian pangolin, the smooth Indian otter and the small Indian civet.

Avian species: Kanha has some 200 species of birds. Watchers should station themselves in the hills, where the mixed and bamboo forests harbour many species, and in the grassy forest clearings. Water birds can be seen near the park’s many rivulets and at Sarvantal. Commonly-seen species: include cattle egret, pond heron, black ibis, common peafowl, crested serpent, racket- tailed drongo, hawk eagle and redwattled lapwing, various species of fly catcher, woodpecker, pigeon, dove, parakeet, babbler and mynah, Indian roller, white breasted kingfisher and grey hornbill.

Your Host-

Baghira Log Huts,Kisli (MP Tourism)Tourist Hostel,Kisli (MP Tourism) Kanha Safari Lodge,Mukki (MP Tourism)