Kanha Tiger Reserve:
The Kanha Tiger Reserve has emerged as the leading tiger habitat in India in terms of ungulate (hoofed herbivore) population, according to the recently released report by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.
- Kanha Tiger Reserve, also called Kanha National Park, is located in the “Maikal” ranges of the Satpuras and falls in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh.
- It is located in the Central Indian Highlands, which are part of the extensive tableland that forms India’s main peninsula.
- It is the largest national park in Madhya Pradesh. It sprawls over an area of 2074 sq.km., with 940 sq. km. of core area and 1,009 sq. km. of buffer zone.
- This particular region was under the control of the Gondwana dynasty, where Gond rulers were ruling over the huge area of Central India.
- It was declared a reserve forest in 1879 and revalued as a wildlife sanctuary in 1933. Its position was further upgraded to a national park in 1955.
- It has an active corridor between Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves. Kanha is also connected with the Achanakmar Tiger Reserve of Chhattisgar
- It is characterized mainly by forested shallow undulations, hills with varying degrees of slopes, plateaus, and valleys.
- The forest depicted in the famous novel by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, is thought by some to be based on jungles, including this reserve.
- The region is known for some of the ancient tribal communities, like the Gond and Baiga, that still inhabit the region.
- It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, “Bhoorsingh the Barasingha”.
Flora: It is primarily a moist Sal and moist mixed deciduous forest where Bamboo, Tendu, Sal, Jamun, Arjun, and Lendia flourish.
Fauna:
The park has a significant population of Royal Bengal Tigers, leopards, sloth bears, and Indian wild dogs.
The Park is respected globally for saving the Barasingha (the state animal of Madhya Pradesh) from near extinction and has the unique distinction of harbouring the last world population of this deer species.
