Kanha National Park, A Tiger Reserve
Kanha National Park is the area that Kipling wrote about in his Jungle Books. The park covers dense forest, open meadows, plateaus - the habitat tigers prefer. It also supports a wide variety of deer and other animals, perfect for the tiger's diet of only meat... but never mind the other animals...we were fixated on seeing tigers.
Other information? Kanha is closed from July 1 to October 31, the rainy season. The best time to visit is between November and June and there are many facilities to choose from. "Luxury" down to rest houses, all outside the Park at Mukki or Kisli. (There is more Kanha information on the Indianwildlife Internet site.)
Tigers are the largest living members of the cat family and weigh up to 500-600 pounds, with a length of 9-10 feet, not counting the tail. Their distinctive coloring camouflages them perfectly in the brush. (Only rarely are tigers born with pure white fur and black stripes like Siegfied and Roy's famous white tigers.) They prefer to live and hunt alone, with the exception of a mother tiger.
Kipling Camp (where we stayed in cottages) was started by conservationists, Bob and Anne Wright, and is also home to "Tara." Tara is an elephant immortalized in Mark Shand's book "Travels on My Elephant", relating his adventures of riding Tara across the country. Kipling was at the western entrance to Kanha. Monkeys all over the Kipling Camp grounds and you could help take Tara for her daily bath in the river if you wanted to. Really excellent food and we spent three nights, two days at Kipling Camp. ...View image
Kipling Camp cottage
Excursions into Kanha National Park are only permitted in the early morning and evening via jeeps (Kipling provides its own jeeps and naturalist). The daily routine went somewhat like this:
- wake up very early and stagger out into the darkness
- look out for snakes on the path from the cottages to parking lot
- into the jeep and wrap warm blankets around yourself (it's cold at that time)
- drive up to the Kanha gates and line-up with all the other jeeps
- Kipling registers you with the Park, and everyone makes a last "pit stop" - no getting out of the jeep in the park
- The Park opens the gates (I think it was 6am, sunrise), jeeps rev their motor and speed through the gates, picking up the Kanha guide assigned to you, taking different routes through the park hoping to spot a tiger on or along the road.
Kanha rangers at an entrance
In the meantime, Park Ranger mahouts with "walkie-talkies" are out on their elephants, searching for the elusive tigers. If a tiger is sighted, word goes out and you are taken to the spot on elephant back. The "tiger shows" are restricted to elephant safaris only. Nothing on foot.
On the first game drive we saw a tiger! With a total of Three tigers in Kanha, each and every one so very, very, very beautiful!! They are so endangered and "official" tiger count estimates are grossly exaggerated according to our guides...
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