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Kanha National Park Facts

Kanha National Park Facts
Kanha National Park is a 360 square mile park located in Madhya Pradesh in India. Kanha National Park is also referred to as Kanha Tiger Reserve, with its large population of royal Bengal tigers. The park was established in 1955 and the designation of tiger reserve in the region was made in 1973, including the national park in its boundaries. An Indian tribe known as the Baiga tribe originally had 28 villages in the region included in the park's boundaries. They were relocated in 1968 to maintain the tiger's habitat. Efforts to maintain the tiger population also involve maintaining the population of other wildlife, some of which serves as prey to the tigers.
Interesting Kanha National Park Facts:
In 1879 the land now included in Kanha National Park was declared a reserve forest. In 1933 it was declared a wildlife sanctuary.
Kanha was the inspiration for the famous book titled Jungle Book (also a popular movie of the same name), by Rudyard Kipling.
Kanha National Park has been referred to as one of the world's finest wildlife regions.
The Baiga tribe that was relocated in 1968 was sent to land that has not been suitable to support the people and as a result many are ill and malnourished and have to beg to survive.
WWF-India has worked to stabilize the tiger population in the region, the prey population, and to minimize losses to both humans and tigers from encounters between the two.
The terrain of Kanha National Park includes streams, meadows, plateaus, and forests.
There are more than 1000 flowering plant species growing in Kanha National Park.
Bamboo grows in abundance in certain regions within the park.
Wildlife found within Kanha National Park includes tigers, wild dogs, leopards, foxes, jackals, wild cats, swamp deer, guar, spotted deer, sambar, barking deer, four-horned deer, mouse deer, black buck, Indian wolf (rare), hyenas, sloths, wild boars, jungle cats, civets, porcupines, and many others.
Reptiles found in the Kanha National Park region include pythons, vipers, grass snakes, keelbacks, and rat snakes, among many others.
Turtles are commonly found near water in Kanha National Park.
The largest animal found in Kanha National Park is the guar - which looks similar to a large ox.
Visitors to Kanha National Park can enjoy a safari aboard a jeep to get closer to the wildlife and landscape that makes the park so popular.
The swamp deer of Kanha National Park, also called the Barasingha, is known as 'the jewel of Kanha'. In the 1970s this species almost became extinct within the park. Efforts to revive the population resulted in numbers growing from only 66 to almost 500.
The best time to visit the park is between October and June, which provides the best opportunity to see the wildlife.
Land of the Tigers is an award-winning film that was made in 1980 in Kanha National Park for National Geographic.
Other wildlife conservation efforts in Kanha include Project Tiger (1973), the crocodile breeding project (1975), Project Elephant (1991), and Project Hangul (1970), among many more.


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