A wildlife safari through the Kanha national park.
12-13 March 2005

We had not really planned a trip to Kanha. As usual, it was one of those on the spur of the moment decisions, but still the trip turned out to be fairly successful.

Getting to Kanha

Kanha national park is located among the Banjar and Halon valleys in the Mandla / Balaghat districts of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The total area of the park is 1,945 square kilometers, out of which 940 square kilometers form the main park. The altitude of the park ranges from 450 meters to 900 meters above sea level. The park remains closed for visitors from July to October owing to the monsoons.

The two closest cities to Kanha are Jabalpur in MP (160km) and Nagpur in Maharashtra (226km). The nearest town to the park is Mandla (65km). You can hire taxis to go to Kanha from both Jabalpur and Nagpur. There is also a bus service from Jabalpur. However, it is best to rent your own car.

Day One

We started out from Nagpur in an Indica at around 7:00 AM. The target was to reach Kanha by lunch, so that we would be in time for the evening safari. There are two safaris: one in the morning from 6:00 AM to noon. And one from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

Even though I was already in holiday mood, my friend clearly was not. She was I think still in her territory and one of her buddies was telling her about how sales the previous day had been lower than target. She clearly needed to get out of the cell range.

	Sales have not happened

The minute DK would see a shop she would put on her sales hat and start exploring markets. She lives by her sales number every day. But this was education for me, I saw the how real life sales worked. And how these small dhabas get their goods, and many a time, do not.
	Dk buying chutki and checking out the market

We have to cross over to Madhya Pradesh to get to Kanha. There is only wilderness near the Maharashtra border with very thick forest like vegetation. Once you cross the MP border, the vegetation is in the form of farms. Another difference is the local economy in both the states. The minute one enters MP one sees a lot more kuccha houses, a lot more people dependent on agriculture, and a lot more poverty, or at least poverty that is visible. If you like drinking chai, do not think of having tea anywhere here.

The drive to Kanha is however lovely. We passed through villages such as Mansar, Kandhri, Deolahri, Nayanpur (where we were sold fake cassettes of our old time favourite DDLJ), Pavani. The Khatia village houses the Kisli entrance to Kanha, through which we entered. The other way to enter Kanha is through the Mukti entrance in Balaghat.
	Fields on the way

Once one enters the jungle its a different world altogether. It was the first time I had seen a forest. It is primarily a sal and bamboo forest. We learnt that once a bamboo tree flowers, it dies immediately. It takes about 60 years for the tree to flower. DK was by now thankfully out of cell range and completely enjoying the ride into the forest.
	Dk in the jeep

The forest looks beautiful in the evening light. We saw a wild boar. Wild boars can fight a tiger with their horns. However, they do not hunt by themselves. Only later did I find out that that was because they did not have sharp teeth, but could use the horns to fight the tiger.

	Forest

The other thing that I could not get over was the blue sky. I have never seen such a clear sky in either Delhi or Bombay. We were surprised at the plains in the forest. Later we were told that there were villages here before this was taken up by the Government, which is why the land is some parts has been cleared.
	Blue skies

Kanha is full of deers. There are the spotted deers and the sambars and cheetals. My favourite sight is that of deers running in the wild and we had adequate opportunity to see that. We also saw a lot of birds, the most ubiquitous being the Racket Tail Drongo. We saw some vultures, kingfishers and peacocks as well. We also managed to see two hyenas feasting on their kill.

	Deers

The sunset in Kanha. This picture was a mad attempt to shoot the sun in his face.
	Sunset in Kanha

Day Two

The next morning we set out at 5:30 AM. We first encountered the bison. Bisons typically move around in groups led by a male. Apparently this bison had lost a fight and had been thrown out of his group. The winner clearly takes all.
	Lonely bison

	Riding into the forest

Sometimes one gets to see tigers in the open maidan while in the gypsy itself. However if a tiger is spotted in the wilderness, the guards at the gate are notified and the tiger show is ready for action. This basically means that one gets to sit on an elephant and ride to where the tiger is. We were lucky in the sense that we managed to be the second in line for getting the ticket to ride on Mr. Elephant to see Mr. Tiger.

Riding on an elephant.

	Mr. Tiger

The tiger looked at us and then just shrugged his shoulders and went off to sleep. We were of course, completely awestruck and did not want to go back.
	Lazing around

	Bridge at Ramtek

Overall

• A one night, two day safari is just not enough. One should really plan for at least three-four rides into the jungle, if one is serious about seeing wild-life. Else the time we budgeted was fine.
• Haiwatha resorts is a nice clean place to stay. And it is very near the main gate to Kanha.
  Anand Datta
  Village: Khatia, Post Kisli Distt.
  Mandla.
  Tel no: 91-7649-277269.
  haiwatharesortkanha2002@yahoo.co.in
• MP Tourism has some cottages inside the park. You can either book them from their offices in Nagpur/Jabalpur or book them at Kanha itself. The dormitory costs Rs.300 per bed and proper cottage costs Rs.1000 per day. This compares to the other resorts around the place.
• There is one expensive resort called Tuli, which might be a good idea if you have a lot of money to burn.
• The gypsy costs Rs.600 for an evening trip and Rs.800 for a morning trip. If you take a gate pass in the morning, you can use the same for entry in the evening.
• Wildly wise has some good information on Kanha.

Back up to some trip reports.

Renuka Sane
renukas at gmail dot com