Kanha National Park
Kanha in Madhya Pradesh (five hours driving from Jabalpur, six from Nagpur) has sometimes been called the N'Gorongoro of India. The simile is apt, albeit Kanha is far greener and its cordon of hills far more densely wooded. Unlike Tanzania's N'Gorongoro, the Kanha valley is not a volcanic crater, though the enclosing hills are a consequence of geologically ancient volcanic activity. The horseshoe-shaped Kanha valley, which accounts for nearly a third and the oldest part of the Kanha National Park, is bound by two distant spurs emanating from the main Mekal ridge, forming its southern rim. The spurs, in their gently tapering traverse, nearly close in the north leaving but a narrow opening for the meandering Sulkum or Surpan river, the valley's main drainage. Herds of the Kanha miscellany, the axis deer (chital), the swamp deer (barasingha), the blackbuck (hiran), the wild pig and occasionally the gaur, throng the central parkland of the valley, providing the basis for the comparison with N'Gorongoro. With its confiding herds and relatively tolerant predators, Kanha offers an almost unrivaled scope to a keen photographer of Indian wildlife
The forests of the Banjar valley and the Halon valley, respectively forming Kanha's western and eastern halves, had, even at the turn of the century, been long famous for their deer and tiger. Expectedly, therefore, they were reserved as the exclusive hunting grounds for the most privileged, the British Viceroy, as early as 1910. The ups and downs in the ensuing decades gave an interesting conservation history to Kanha which celebrated its golden jubilee in 1983. It all started with an area of some 96 sq miles (250 sq km) in the Kanha valley being gazetted as a sanctuary in 1933. This was followed by 116 sq miles (300 sq km) of the Halon valley around Supkhar also being declared a sanctuary in 1935. However, because of extensive deer damage to tree saplings in the forests and crops in nearby villages, the Supkhar sanctuary was denitrified within a few years. Both these areas at that time still harbored teeming populations of the Central Indian barasingha (Carves duvauceli branderi). This majestic cousin of the nominate swamp deer (Carves duvauceli) of the sub-Himalayan flood- plains had adapted itself to the hard-ground grasslands and until the turn of the century dominated the Central Indian highlands.
Major Attractions of Kanha National Park are:-
Once a hunting reserve of the royal family of Rewa in more recent times, Bandhavgarh was declared a park in 1968. This is also the site where the fanmous WHITE TIGERS of Rewa were discovered.
The main wildlife attractions in the park are tiger, bison, gaur, sambhar, chital, barasingha, barking deer, black deer, black buck, chousingha, nilgai, mouse deer, sloth bear, jackal fox, porcupine, hyena, jungle cat, python, pea fowl, hare, monkey, mongoose, tiger, and leopard
The bird species in the park include storks, teals, pintails, pond herons, egrets, peacock, pea fowl, jungle fowl, spur fowl, partridges, quails, ring doves, spotted parakeets, green pigeons, rock pigeons, cuckoos, papihas, rollers, bee-eater, hoopoes, drongos, warblers, kingfishers, woodpeckers, finches, orioles, owls and fly catchers.
You can top your visit to the Kanha National Park by visiting the Kanha Museum, situated inside the park. The museum provides useful information about varied topics including the topography, park maps, pug marks of various animals etc, which can enhance your experience of visiting the park
Near the visitor centre one can see the stumps of two giant sal trees that are worshipped daily in the forests. Known as Raja Rani, these trees once lived in the Kanha National Park.