Kanha Tiger Reserve is the Jewel in the crown of the Project Tiger initiative.
Nature is at its beautiful best here with sprawling meadows and winding rivers intersected by hills with dense vegetation creating a splendid home for a variety of wild animals and birds.
No wonder Rudyard Kipling found this place inspiring enough to come up with the one and only Jungle Book. As a child, all of us would have come across the story of Mowgli thru Jungle Book. This book and the series ultimately helped the author Rudyard Kipling to win the Nobel Prize.
There is a new smaller national park by name Pench near Kanha which also claims to be the Kipling country. But Kanha is undoubtedly fit to have the privilege of inspiring Mr. Kipling.
We visited Kanha in the last week of October 2005. This was the 10th Wild Life Park visited by us. I can say without doubt this is one of the best wild life conservation initiatives in India.
About the park
Conservation in Kanha started way back in 1879. Today it has a core area of around 1000 sq kms and a buffer zone of another 1000 sq kms making it one of the largest sanctuaries in India. Kanha is home to 43 species of mammals and more than 300 species of birds. As per 2003 official count, there were 128 tigers in Kanha.
The park is open for visitors from Dawn to Dusk. Visitors are allowed entry thru two forest check posts. One is at Kisli village on the western fringes of the core area and the other is at Mukkivillage, on the southern side of the core area.
Climate here is very typical of Central India (> 40 Deg C in summer and freezing in winter). Summer is supposedly the best time to sight wild life.
However, our sightings in October itself were extraordinary. The list includes Bison, Jackal, Wild Dog, Barasingha, Sambar deer and Chital in 4 days in additional to the awe inspiring Tiger.
The park is closed during monsoon from July thru September. The peak tourist season is from Diwali up to beginning of April, before it becomes too hot for comfort.
Only petrol vehicles are allowed to enter the park. So Gypsies are prime vehicles. At peak, as many as 90 Gypsies enter the park in a day. The park is huge with as many as 10 different routes available for use of vehicles. Thus it is safe to say these huge numbers of vehicles are managed without any logistical discomfort.
The forest authorities are very strict in enforcing all the park rules and they are right in doing so. Forest guards are present at every critical junction inside the park. Guards at significant locations have wireless handsets. All disturbances to the wild life by visitors are relayed back to the gates. The subject vehicle guide and driver are issued a warning and the visitor is fined at the time of exit.
Another salient fact : No mobiles work here except for BSNL
Park related charges
Per day charges:
Vehicle entry: 150 Rs, Visitor entry / head: 25 Rs, Still Camera: 40 Rs, Video camera: 300 Rs
Per entry charges:
Tiger Show/ head: 100 Rs, Guide charges: 100 Rs per vehicle
How to reach
We drove from Nagpur to Kisli (250 kms). The journey takes about 6 hours by car. The travel up to Seoni (130 kms) is thru Jabalpur National highway which is well laid and smooth. A good stop over during the journey is the MP tourism lodge and cafeteria at Pench wildlife sanctuary on the highway. From Seoni, take a right to go thru Keolari, Nainpur and Chiraidongri to reach the Kisli gate of the park (120 kms).
To go to the Mukki gate of the park, from Seoni you will have to divert away thru Balaghat and Boihar to reach Mukki village (170 kms from Seoni)
Nagpur is well connected by train and air to the rest of India.
You can alternatively drive from Jabalpur (170 kms) thru Tikaria and Mandla. Jabalpur is also well connection by train to the rest of India. Flights to Delhi are also available.
Tiger Sighting
Well, almost everybody visit Kanha with a common desire i.e. to get themselves a few stripes by sighting the King of the Indian Jungles at its natural best.
In any sanctuary, Tiger sighting is pure luck with less than 20% chance. At Kanha the chances of sighting from a vehicle is >50%.
On top of this Kanha has pioneered a Tiger show process over a period of 30 years.Before dawn, trained elephants and their mahouts are sent in search of Tigers in different directions from the park center at Kanha village (the park is named after this village).
All this happen while you are taking a drive around the park or having a look at the Visitor Interpretation center at Kanha village.
Once a tiger is spotted, the mahout sends a signal back to the park center thru his wireless. The Tiger show for the day is announced. Visitors can go to the nearest possible road point to the place of sighting by road. Then you are taken on the back of trained elephants to see the Tiger at very close quarters.
The key aspect is the choice of the Tiger for a given day. The mahouts and authorities choose a Tiger just after a kill or a Tigress playing with its kids after getting food for them to avoid any confrontational situation with us. They also do not unduly force the animal to be in a given location or harm them to avoid movement.
This process gives >90% chance of sighting Tiger while in Kanha. This high quality sighting brings loads of visitors especially from outside India generating enough money to support conservation.
The park is hence successful in conservation as well as in attracting visitors.
We were able to see 3 Tigers from our Gypsy and 8 Tigers thru the Tiger show in a total of four trips into the park.
Stay Options
We stayed at the beautiful and rustic Wild Chalet Resort located near Mocha village (8 kms from Kisli gate).
The down to Earth staffs at the resort headed by theNaturalist Manager Eric De Cona go out of the way in making your stay pleasurable.All their 16 cottages are simple, comfortable and very clean. It sounds unbelievable when they say the property is 16 years old.
The resort is located on the banks of the scenic Banjar River which meanders on the fringes of the sanctuary. The dining area and the sit out around it provide a spectacular view of the unpolluted water. You can also play in the sand or stand still as the River water flows below our knees (except during monsoon)
It cost us around 7100 Rs per couple for a 2 night 3 day package which included all food and 2 jungle safaris (Tiger show and camera extra). We enjoyed so much that we extended our stay by one more day.
Other good options are Krishna Jungle resort and Kipling Camp near Kisli and Royal Tiger resort near Mukki. All of them are substantially costlier than Wild Chalet. Cheaper but not so reliable option is MP tourism lodge at the Kisli gate.
It is better to go on all inclusive Jungle Plan irrespective of the resort as the Gypsy hire charges may be 1000 Rs or more.
Overall very relaxing experiences without ever feeling you are so far away from home.
Thanks to the folks at Wild Chalet and Hats off to Kanha Forest authorities for their outstanding conservation.
Real value and satisfaction for all the money we spent.
