Places to see in the Kanha National Park

If you want to see Kanha’s wildlife, you are very well accompanied by the Forest department guides that take the visitors around the park on mapped out circuits to help them see a good cross-section of rich fauna of Kanha park. You can admire the chitals, blackbucks and antelopes running around the meadows of Kanha throughout the day.

Bamni Dadar: It is also called as the Sunset Point and is one of the most beautiful areas of the park. You can easily see the Hardground Barasingha that is only found in this park in India. You can watch the spectacular sunset here amidst the dense vegetation and mixed zone animals can be spotted here including barking beer, sambar, the 4-horned antelope and gaur.

Mammalian Species: Kanha hosts around 22 species of various mammals. You can easily spot common langur, striped palm squirrel, wild pig, jackal, chital or spotted deer, swamp deer or the barasingha, blackbuck and sambar.

Less common species spotted at the Kanha park are Indian Hare, Indian Wild Dog or the Dhole, Tiger, Indian bison or gaur and barking deer. You need to be extremely patient to get rewarded with the sights of sloth bear, Indian fox, striped hyena, leopard, jungle cat, chausingha, Mouse deer, nilgai, porcupine and the ratel.

Rarely Spotted Species: Chinkara that dwells on the northern boundary can be rarely spotted sometimes along with the wolves that live on the far east of the park. Indian Pangolin and the Indian civet are also rarely spotted on the grounds.

Avian Species: Kanha hosts around 200 species of birds. Watchers need to station in the hills. You can find several species amidst mixed and bamboo forests harbor and the grassy forest clearings.

Sarvantal and many rivulets in the Kanha national park are like home to several water birds. Sarvantal is located in front of the museum and frequented by various water birds. Kanha’s avi-fauna is not very dense but early morning and late afternoons are usually good for bird watching. You can hire binoculars at the park to watch these birds.

Commonly Seen Species: pond heron, cattle egret, common peafowl, black ibis, rackettailed drongo, crested serpent, red-wattled lapwing and hawk eagle along with various species of woodpecker, flycatcher, dove, pigeon, babbler parakeet, and mynah; white-breasted kingfisher, Indian roller and grey hornbill. Elephant and Jeep and Elephant hire is available.

You can easily hire MPSTDC jeeps for park tours. Elephant’s hire is good for tiger tracking. Elephants can easily take the tourists to the spot where the tiger is located. You can contact the MPSTDC Manager for jeep hire, located at Kanha Safari Lodge, Mukki and the Baghira Log Huts, Kisli. An advance booking is required for the morning runs and many a times it is good book jeeps in advance as they may not be available during the peak periods.

Best Season:

February to June, is a good season to watch the wildlife. It is cool and park is closed from July 01 to October 31 due to monsoons. It is recommended to stay at least three nights to see more and elusive animals but a brief visit can also be quite interesting.

What to Wear: Mostly cotton is recommended but you can bring jackets or woolens for the nights or evenings especially moving in jeeps in the evening can be chilly. Wear natural colours and avoid loud or bright colours.

Food
Kisli is the nearby village that has a canteen and a restaurant. You can find both the western and the Indian food at the restaurant. The restaurant is quite cheap that serves snacks and table d’hote meals. You can find multi-cuisine restaurant at the Kanha Safari lodge.

Kisli or Mukki: You should carry cash in advance, as there is no facility to cash travelers cheque. The nearest bank is at State Bank of Mandla that deals in foreign exchange.

Reaching Khatia that lies 3 km away from Kisli and Mukki are the two primary sources to enter the Kanha National Park. Kisli is 165 km from Jabalpur via Chiraidongri. Mukki lies 203 km away from Garhi and Motinala. All those travelling from Bilaspur (182 km), Balaghat (83km), Raipur (213km), Mukki falls on State Highway #26. Kanha National Park is 259 km away from Nagpur and Chiraidongri and 289 km from Balaghat.

There is Kanha Museum at the Kanha village that carries exhibits depicting entire eco-system and the rich fauna and flora of the Kanha Park. There is six rooms spread across two buildings that open each day at 7 am and are open during park excursion hours.