Kanha National Park

A tiger reserve of sal forest and meadows in Madhya Pradesh, said to have inspired The Jungle Book, home to tigers and the rare hard-ground barasingha.

Kanha National Park lies in the Maikal Hills of Madhya Pradesh, India, between Mandla and Balaghat districts. Its core zone covers about 940 sq km, and together with the buffer zone it forms the roughly 2,000 sq km Kanha Tiger Reserve, one of India's first Project Tiger reserves. It is also widely believed to have inspired Kipling's The Jungle Book. The landscape is a mosaic of sal forest, bamboo thickets and open meadows, home to Bengal tigers, leopards, sloth bears, gaur and dholes. Its most famous resident is the hard-ground barasingha (swamp deer), brought back from the brink of extinction and now the state animal of Madhya Pradesh. Visitors explore by licensed jeep safari with a guide. The core is divided into four zones – Kanha, Kisli, Mukki and Sarhi – with morning and afternoon safaris daily. Permits are booked in advance on the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department website, and in peak season they sell out months ahead; buffer-zone permits are easier to get, and night safaris are available there. The core zones open from mid-October to the end of June and close during the July–September monsoon, with no safaris on Wednesday afternoons. November–February is cool, with early mornings dropping to around 5°C, so bring a warm jacket; April–June is hot, but animals gather at waterholes and tiger sightings are most likely. Getting there: the northern Khatia/Kisli gate is about 160 km from Jabalpur (around 4 hours by car), and the southern Mukki gate is about 260 km from Nagpur; both cities have airports and railway stations. Plan on 2–3 nights with 4–6 safaris, and combine them with village visits and birdwatching.

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