Kanha

Kanha is the park that Kipling used as the template for the Jungle Book — the sal and bamboo forests, the meadows called maidans, the river crossings, the alarm calls of the spotted deer — and it remains the fullest expression of what an Indian jungle is supposed to feel like.

The barasingha — the swamp deer of Kanha — was saved from extinction on these meadows in the 1970s when the population had fallen to fewer than a hundred individuals. The management programme that brought it back was the model for subsequent Indian wildlife recovery efforts and is rightly regarded as one of the conservation success stories of the 20th century. Watching a herd of them on the Bishanpura meadow in the golden hour before sunset — the stags' antlers catching the light, the deer moving with an easy weightlessness — is one of the park's most reliably beautiful experiences.

The night temperature at Kanha in January and February drops to near zero, and the safari vehicles operate without windscreens, which means the dawn drive — wrapped in blankets, the guide's breath visible as he scans the forest edge — is genuinely physical in a way that safari experiences in more temperate climates are not. The discomfort is part of the experience: tigers are most active at dawn and dusk because the temperature at these times is comfortable for a warm-blooded predator, and the cold air makes their breath visible, which is how experienced guides often locate them before the prey animals give them away.

Places to Visit in Kanha

• Kanha National Park core zones
• Bamni Dadar sunset point
• Kanha Museum

Things to Do in Kanha

• Tiger and wildlife safaris
• Sunset viewing at Bamni Dadar
• Forest nature walks