About Kanha Tiger Reserve:
- Kanha Tiger Reserve, also called Kanha National Park, is located in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh.
- It is the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh.
- It lies within a series of plateaus in the Maikal hills, east of the Satpura range.
- It was created on June 1, 1955, and in 1973, it was made the Kanha Tiger Reserve.
- It sprawls over an area of 940 sq.km.
- It is characterized mainly by forested shallow undulations, hills with varying degrees of slopes, plateaus and valleys.
- The forest depicted in the famous novel by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, is thought by some to be based on jungles, including this reserve.
- The region is known for some of the ancient tribal communities, like the Gond and Baiga, which still inhabit the region.
- It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, "Bhoorsingh the Barasingha".
- Flora: It is primarily a moist Sal and moist mixed deciduous forest where Bamboo, Tendu, Sal, Jamun, Arjun, and Lendia flourish.
- Fauna:
- It has a significant population of Royal Bengal Tiger, leopard, sloth bear, and Indian wild dog.
- It is respected globally for saving the Barasingha (the State animal of Madhya Pradesh) from near extinction, and has the unique distinction of harbouring the last world population of this deer species.
