Kanha National Park - Facts about Kanha Tiger Reserve for UPSC

Kanha National Park is located in Madhya Pradesh. It is popularly known as Kanha Tiger Reserve. It is Madhya Pradesh’s largest park. It is the first tiger reserve of India to announce a mascot – ‘Bhoorsingh, The Barasingha.’ Tiger Conservation is an important topic for the IAS Examination and from that view, aspirants must know about important tiger reserves in India.

This article will brief you about Kanha National Park of Kanha Tiger Reserve. The relevant facts can be helpful for prelims and mains examination.

Get the list of national parks in India from the linked article.

Things to know about Kanha Tiger Reserve

1. It is located in the Maikal Range of Satpuras and span across two districts of MP – Mandla and Balaghat.
2. It is declared as one of the finest wildlife reserves in the world and is famous globally to save Barasingha from near extinction.
3. In 1879, the park was declared as the reserve forest.
4. In 1952, it was termed as the wildlife sanctuary.
5. In 1955, the park was termed as the National Park.
6. As per the official website, the total area of the Kanha Tiger Reserve is 1945 sq km.
7. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ is said to be inspired by the Kanha National Park.
8. The sunset point called, ‘Bammi Dadar’ is the famous tourist spot at Kanha Tiger Reserve.
9. The two famous tribes of Gonda and Baigas originally inhabited the forest.
10. The Tiger Reserve is located in one of the most important tiger landscapes in the country.

The question about the difference between wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserves and national park has been asked in the UPSC interview. Hence, it will be beneficial for the candidates to visit the linked article to revise the major differences between the three areas.

Brief History of Kanha National Park

Hallon and Banjar were two sanctuaries into which the Kanha Park was earlier divided in the 1930s. The tag of the national park, as mentioned before, was given only in 1955. The Kanha Tiger Reserve encompass the surrounding buffer zones of the park and the Phen sanctuary which is in its neighbourhood.

Wildlife in Kanha National Park/Tiger Reserve

The significant population of the following is seen in the Kanha National Park:

1. Royal Bengal Tiger
2. Leopards
3. Sloth bear
4. Barasingha
5. Indian wild dog

Flora of Kanha Tiger Reserve/National Park

1. Lowland forest – Sal, mixed trees and meadows.
2. Highland forest – Tropical moist deciduous forest.

Kanha Tiger Reserve Corridor

• Kanha Tiger Reserve has a long conservation history and has been identified as an important source population of tigers.
• It has an active corridor between Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves.
• Kanha is also connected with the Achanakmar Tiger Reserve of Chhattisgarh State.
• The State of Madhya Pradesh has taken an initiative to prepare a generic plan for the Kanha-Pench corridor with a view to promote ecologically sustainable land use in the corridor.
• To reduce the biotic pressure on the forests, emphasis has also been given to addressing the livelihood issues of the communities living
  in and around the corridor.

Conservation of Kanha Tiger Reserve

• The depletion of the tiger population in the years post-1947 led to the area being made an absolute sanctuary in 1952.
• By a special status in 1955, Kanha National Park came into being.
• Since then, a series of stringent conservation programmes for the protection of both the Park’s flora and fauna has given Kanha its deserved reputation for being one of the finest and best administered National Parks in Asia.
• The same abundance of wildlife exists as in the past in this Park, which forms the core of the Kanha Tiger Reserve created in 1974 under ‘Project Tiger’ to envisage intensive conservation efforts to protect the ecosystem and sustain the tiger.

Read about the Natural Vegetation in India in the linked article.

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